Original subtitles

1970,

the year that brought the swinging 60s

to a close, was about as harsh a morning

after as the Poseidon adventure,

although that was still a few years

away. After instilling the nation with

the blind optimism of flower power and

beetle mania, the back half of the 1960s

came crashing down with the

assassinations of John F. Kennedy and

Martin Luther King Jr., the beginning of

the Vietnam War, and the Manson family.

>> Right. 1970 rode that bleak wave into a

decade marked by geopolitical unrest,

gas shortages, natural disasters, serial

killers, terrorism, and one of the

biggest scandals in 20th century

American politics. And also a bunch of

really groovy movies. Almost too many,

really.

>> Oh, I can imagine quite a bit.

>> We're going to talk about the news,

culture, sports, and entertainment, and

all that was weird in the 70s. This is

Timeline.

Get ready for some forgettable Beatles

solo albums because this one is all

about 1970. But before we get started,

be sure to subscribe to the Weird

History Channel and let us know in the

comments below your favorite '7s memory.

Now, are you ready to boogie down? Let's

all dance through the night together.

>> Despite positive changes brought about

by the civil rights movement and a

national excitement over the

possibilities of space exploration

following Neil Armstrong's historic

first steps on the moon, the decade

began on uncertain ground. Twothirds of

Americans disapproved of the US's

involvement in the Vietnam War. The year

ahead would see the continued

proliferation of nuclear weapons, a

shocking display of state violence, an

infamous space disaster that nearly

ended in tragedy, and the dissolution of

one of the most influential bands of all

time. But it wasn't all bad.

>> The Hollywood coroner says an overdose

of narcotics is responsible for the

death of the well-known rock singer

Janice Ja.

>> Okay, so it was mostly bad. Some years

just start out in desperate need of a

doover and never fully recover. When do

we get started?

>> When did we get started?

>> Why not?

>> This is 1970.

[Music]

>> The Who's drummer and resident party

animal Keith Moon kicked off the decade

by drunkenly running over his own

chauffeur while trying to escape an

unruly mob of skin heads outside a pub

in London. The group surrounded Moon's

Bentley and began pelting it, at which

point Moon's driver, Neil Boland,

climbed out to confront them. The skin

heads pummeled Boland mercilessly, and a

terrified Moon grabbed the wheel and

took off. This was ultimately ruled an

accident, and Moon was cleared of any

wrongdoing, although it haunted the

drummer for the rest of his life.

>> Where are you?

still didn't answer my question,

>> which was

>> you were sort of lost in thought when I

came in. What about

>> maybe I was trying to be one of your

grandmother's chipsies.

Read the future in the flames.

>> 4 months after leading a military coup

against Libya's kingdom al Gaddafi is

declared premier of Libya by the

government he just created. Funny how

that works out. Gaddafi was an army

captain and fierce Arab nationalist who

sought to purge Libya of Western

influence, removing US and British

military bases from the country and

deporting Libyans with Italian and

Jewish heritage within his first year of

power. The controversial dictator

remained in power for just over 40 years

until he would be captured and killed by

members of Libya's National Liberation

Army on October 20th, 2011 during the

first Libyan civil war. It's safe to say

his popularity rating had dropped some

in the intervening years.

>> This isn't a hospital. It's an insane

and it's your fault because you don't do

anything to discourage them.

>> What do you want me to do?

>> Put them under arrest. See what a court

marshal think to their drunkenism.

Famed folk pop duo Simon and Garfuncle

released their final studio album,

Bridge Over Troubled Water, on January

26th before splitting up for good later

that year. Their swan song, considered

by many to be the pair's best, went on

to become one of the bestselling albums

of all time with over 25 million copies

sold worldwide. That's a whole lot of

wax. Speaking of landmark albums, the

Jackson 5's first single, I Want You

Back, reached the number one spot on the

Billboard Hot 100 on January 31st. Fresh

off their history making appearance on

the Ed Sullivan Show in December.

>> Here's the youthful Jackson vibe,

opening with a medley of their hits that

have sold over a million. The group

released three other number one singles

that year, ABC, The Love You Save, and

I'll Be There, making them the first

recording artists in history to have

their first four singles reached the top

spot. Flash forward to October 7th,

1971, when the group's magnetic lead

singer, Michael Jackson, released his

first single as a solo artist, Got to Be

There, when he was just 13 years old.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

Give me a give me a when I'm eating.

Okay. I'm going to eat a dog.

>> What's that spell?

>> I hate it. Going to eat an apple.

>> I want you to remember that no bastard

ever won war by dying for his country.

You want it

by making the other poor dumb bastard

die for his country.

>> The legendary heavy metal band Black

Sabbath released their self-titled debut

album on February 13th, introducing the

world to their colorful frontman Azie

Osborne for the first time.

>> We like the name Black Sabbath. So,

>> we just like the name, you know.

>> Why did you pick the name in the first

place?

>> Why did the Beatles pick the Beatles?

You know, nobody knows. According to the

band's guitarist, Tony Iomi, the album

was recorded in one day during a single

12-hour session. Black Sabbath's debut

is widely considered to be the first

heavy metal album and one of the most

influential records of the 20th century.

Chicago.

>> The Chicago 7, the name given to the men

standing trial for allegedly inciting a

riot during antivietnam protests at the

Democratic National Convention in August

of 1968, were found innocent on charges

of conspiracy on February 18th. Renie

Davis, David Dinger, John Fins, Tom

Hayden, Abby Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and

Lee Winer were all acquitted.

>> The judge knows that the only one who's

in contempt of his court is Julius

Hoffman. We're going to have

demonstrations at local courts across

this country.

>> The last witness was a rebuttal to

Reny's testimony. It was hysterical. He

didn't see any defendant day. He didn't

see anybody on a bullhorn yelling kill a

pig. Nothing. Where's their case? I've

seen more evidence in a case of scotch.

Davis, Dinger, Hayden, Hoffman, and

Ruben were convicted of crossing state

lines to start a riot. But those

convictions, along with several others

for contempt of court, were eventually

reversed. In late March, the United

States detonated its 500th nuclear

device since dropping atomic bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 as part

of its ongoing nuclear testing program.

America would set off more than 1,000

nuclear explosions before a moratorum

was placed on testing by President

George HW Bush. In October 2nd, 1992,

President Clinton extended the

moratorium and signed the comprehensive

nuclear testban treaty in 1996. The

treaty will constrain any nation from

improving its existing nuclear arsenal

and end the development of advanced

nuclear weapons and help to stop their

spread. The treaty has yet to be

ratified by Congress. Not that we're

going to start setting off nukes again.

We just like to keep our options open.

At the end of March, jazz legend Miles

Davis released his 27th studio album,

[ __ ] Brew. The album would go on to

become Davis's highest charting, topping

out at number 35, and would earn him the

first gold record of his career. To

date, Bitch's Brew is regarded as one of

the best jazz albums ever recorded. On

April 1st, President Richard Nixon

signed a bill banning cigarette

advertising on radio and television.

>> Hey, how would you like to have a phone

like that?

>> Great. Then I can see you all the time.

Don't settle for some of the taste. Some

of the time

really gives you all the taste all the

time.

To the woe of the tobacco industry, this

was not an April Fool's joke.

>> Phil Morris Company has bought all

commercial time on the first half hour

of all the network talk shows tonight.

That is the last half hour on which it

is legal to sell cigarettes on radio or

television in the United States. It

marks, as we like to say, the end of an

era. Regulation of the tobacco industry

had ramped up following increasingly

alarming health studies linking smoking

to cancer, heart disease, and birth

defects, including a report by the

Surgeon General linking smoking to low

birth weight. The last televised

cigarette ad ran on January 1st, 1971 at

11:50 p.m. during the Johnny Carson

Show. The hearts of millions of Beatle

maniacs around the world were shattered

on April 10th when Paul McCartney

officially announced his departure from

the Beatles. In the spirit of the

well-known tensions that had steadily

developed between the bandmates,

McCartney revealed he would no longer be

working with the rest of the Fab 4 in a

press release promoting the impending

release of his solo album McCartney. The

release took the form of a fictional Q&A

featuring questions reportedly written

mostly by Sir Paul himself. Despite the

fact that neither the general public nor

the rest of the Beatles themselves

initially knew how seriously to take

McCartney's announcement, it turned out

to be the real deal. The band never

reunited. Keeping it real classy, Sir

Paul. One day later, Apollo 13 embarked

on its ill- fated voyage to the moon. 2

days into the mission, an oxygen tank at

the command module failed, forcing the

crew, Jim Levelvel, Fred Hayes, and Jack

Swagard to abandon their planned lunar

landing.

>> All right, Houston. We've had a problem.

Over the next 3 days, the entire nation

held its breath as NASA mission control

worked tirelessly in a race against time

to bring the three astronauts home. The

crew finally returned safely to Earth,

thanks to some DIY ingenuity that would

have made MacGyver proud.

>> The men of Apollo 13 epitomize the

character that accepts danger and

surmounts it. Theirs is the spirit that

build America. Flash forward to June

30th, 1995, when director Ron Howard's

blockbuster film about the unforgettable

mission was released in theaters.

>> Houston, we have a problem.

>> The appropriately titled Apollo 13 went

on to become the second highest grossing

movie of 1995 and was nominated for nine

Oscars.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> Introducing the G.I. Joe Spacematic.

Spacematic, the futuristic space vehicle

you program yourself. Program it to lift

or to scoop or use the magnetic pickup.

>> Watch this. Way to go, Joe.

>> GI Joe Spacematic from Hasbro.

Moving into May, America watched in

horror as 28 National Guardsmen fired

into a crowd of unarmed students at

Ohio's Kent State University, killing

four and wounding nine others, leaving

one victim permanently paralyzed.

>> Leave this area immediately.

>> The National Guard had been deployed 2

days earlier in response to escalating

student protests against the Vietnam

War. The guardsmen, armed with tear gas

and bayonetated rifles, first ordered

the demonstrators to disperse before

firing into the crowd without warning.

The event sparked widespread outrage and

demonstrations on college campuses

across America. Ultimately, a federal

court dropped all charges against the

National Guard troops responsible for

the shootings. The Beatles final studio

album, Let It Be, was released on May

8th, just a few weeks after the news of

their unofficial official breakup left

millions of fans confused. The album,

released alongside a documentary film of

the same name, was met with an equally

mild response, earning the group some of

the most mediocre reviews of their

career. Despite its lukewarm initial

reception, Let It Be won the Fab 4 and

Academy Award for best original song

score the following year.

>> On their behalf, thank you very much.

>> and has since been reappraised by fans

and critics alike as the Beatles most

underrated album. The band's tense

rehearsal sessions were captured on film

for the documentary and later repurposed

by none other than Peter Jackson in an

8-hour documentary series about the

creation of the album titled The

Beatles. Get back. Leave it to Peter

Jackson to turn an 80-minute movie into

an epic. Maybe one day he can do the

reverse to those Hobbit movies. Staying

with music, founding Fleetwood Mac

guitarist Peter Green walked away from

the band following a final performance

on May 20th. to join a German commune he

discovered a few months earlier. Green

had been invited to a party at the

commune by model and actress Ushi Uber.

Green decided he didn't want to leave.

Band mate Mick Fleetwood and two

Fleetwood Matt Rodies had to literally

drag him away to complete the rest of

their European tour.

>> John is to this day absolutely furious

with these people. Call them the German

jetet and they captured Peter

completely.

>> Hey, it was the ' 70s. You might wander

off and join a cult was just an

occupational hazard for musicians. In

fact, flash forward to March of 1971

when guitarist Jeremy Spencer went out

to get a magazine while Fleetwood Mack

was in California to play a series of

shows at the Whiskey Agogo and never

returned. Spencer left to join the

infamous Children of God cult, now known

as the Family International. He remains

a member to this day. That's one way to

avoid the drama of making rumors.

>> Who do you think you're talking to?

drunk kid that fixes bicycles. I know

every inch of the 707. Take the wings

off this and you could use it as a tank.

This plane is built to withstand

anything except a bad pilot.

>> All right, hold it. Hold it. This kind

of talk will get us nowhere.

>> In late May, Detroit Tigers outfielder

Al Kaline suffered one of sport's most

bizarre injuries during a game against

the Milwaukee Brewers. While running to

catch a flyball, Kaline collided with

teammate Jim Northrup so violently that

he actually swallowed his tongue. Kaline

collapsed on the field unable to

breathe. His teeth were clenched so

tightly that Milwaukey's bullpen coach

Jackie Moore was unable to force his

mouth open. Luckily, left fielder and

renowned slugger Willie Horton had the

Hulk strength necessary to pry Kaline's

jaws open and clear his airway, leaving

Horton with scars on his hand. Kaline

ultimately only missed one game, and

Horton was presented with a Michigan

Heart Association Award for his actions.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

Come on. Come on. Come on. The Pepsi way

la and have a Pepsi day. You found a

place to celebrate. Pepsi's cold food is

great.

Come on. Have a Pepsi day. You're the

Pepsi generation.

Pepsi

day.

On June 20th, UCLA fired assistant

professor of philosophy Angela Davis for

the second time. This firing was for her

use of inflammatory language in speeches

about the handling of the People's Park

rally the previous summer in which she

characterized the police as pigs and the

university regents as killers and

murderers.

>> Three weeks ago, there were pigs on the

campus attacking everybody they saw. The

People's Park rally deviated from its

topic of the Arab-Israeli conflict into

a protest, which turned into a park

takeover in which police fired shotguns

into crowds of demonstrators, ending the

life of one and injuring dozens more.

The college had previously terminated

Davis's employment back in September of

1969 because she was a member of the

Communist Party. Davis was also an

activist and member of the Black

Panthers, which will matter when we fast

forward to October 13th, 1970 when Davis

was arrested after a two-month manhunt

for her connection to the Marin County

Civic Center domestic terrorist attack

on August 7th using three guns owned by

Davis, one of which was a shotgun she

had purchased just 2 days before. Four

men took five hostages from a courtroom,

including Superior Court Judge Harold

Haley. They demanded the release of

three black inmates who were on trial

for the stabbing of a white prison

guard. Three of the kidnappers and the

judge were killed. Davis spent 16 months

in prison awaiting her trial, but was

eventually acquitted of any crime. She

continues her activism to this day.

[Music]

Here we go with the top 40 hits in the

nation this week on American Top 40.

This is Casey Kasem in Hollywood. The

syndicated radio countdown show American

Top 40 with Casey Kasem aired its first

episode on the 4th of July. A show in

which casem counted down the top 40

Billboard singles of the week became a

staple of American culture for the next

several decades. All right, all you

dream analysts, turn up the sound.

Here's Eric Burton with his new group

called War. And the song is called Spill

the Wine.

>> Casemous voice is what we think of when

we hear the words top 40 DJ. He walked

so Carson Daly and Ryan Serest could

run. Incidentally, Serest is the current

host of American Top 40, which he took

over from a retiring Kasem in 2004. In

addition to the radio, you might

recognize Kasem as the original voice of

Shaggy on Scooby-Doo.

>> I'm so scared. I wish I had a ham

sandwich to calm my nerves.

>> A character he played for roughly 40

years. A week later, Norwegian

ethnologist Thor Hired Doll completed

his trip across the Atlantic, sailing

from Morocco to Barbados in a raft in 57

days. The trip was an effort to prove

Hired Doll's theory that the ancient

Egyptians and other ancient

Mediterranean civilizations actually

sailed to America and exchanged trade

and culture with the people in Central

and South America. Hierdall's raft, the

Rawu, was constructed of papyrus and

modeled after Egyptian sailing vessels

of the period. Despite successfully

completing the 4,000mi journey, his

theory is still not accepted by most

anthropologists.

>> Well, several things have been proven.

Uh, one of them is definitely that the

Papitus vessel is seawwarding.

>> You go on a 57-day raft trip and you get

nothing. That's got to stink. The music

world was shot when Jimmyi Hendricks,

one of rock's most towering icons, died

suddenly on September 18th at the age of

27. During his short career, Hrix

flailed his electric guitar into some of

the most unusual sounds of an unusual

music.

>> An astonishing performer whose onstage

gyrations could make Elvis Presley look

like a PE teacher.

>> Sadly, Hrix wouldn't be the only

27-year-old talent that would be lost in

1970. Just a few weeks later, rock

legend Janice Joplain passed on October

4th at the age of 27. Joplain was in Los

Angeles recording her upcoming album

Pearl when she was found unresponsive in

her hotel room after missing a recording

session. The passing of both Hendricks

and Joplain, coupled with the deaths of

blues musician Alan Blind Owl Wilson

earlier that September and Rolling

Stones guitarist Brian Jones a few years

earlier marked the unofficial beginning

of the infamous 27 Club. In September,

some now iconic TV shows debuted.

>> So, here I am in Minneapolis. New life,

new job. Well, not a new job yet. First,

I had to go on an interview at a local

TV station.

>> The job that's open as associate

producer.

>> I like it. Let's go see producer.

>> Mary's making new friends. Make yourself

at home on Tuesday.

>> You can't do this whole room without

bothering you. It won't cost me a scent.

I'm going to sell the old furniture to

buy new. You won't touch anything in my

room. Have I ever?

>> You won't be.

Hey kids, Hollywood Boulevard.

>> If anyone had told me four months ago

that I'd be driving an old school bus

filled with my five children and a large

dog through Hollywood, I'd have thought

they were crazy.

>> Ladies and gentlemen, America's latest

success story, the Partridge Family.

>> The Door's front man, Jim Morrison, was

convicted of indecent exposure and

profanity on September 20th. The charges

stemmed from a 1969 concert in Miami

during which Morrison allegedly used

some swear words and may or may not have

dropped his pants. Morrison was

sentenced to 6 months in jail and a $500

fine for the scandalous incident. To

this day, Door's bandmates maintain

Morrison's pants stayed on.

>> This is PBS, the public broadcasting

service.

>> PBS began operations as a US television

network on the 5th. The nonprofit

organization dedicated to highquality

educational programming has been the

broadcast home of beloved children's

shows like Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers

Neighborhood, and The Magic School Bus,

as well as stuffier grown-up shows like

Masterpiece Theater, and Downtown Abbey,

which have way less puppets. Gary

Trudeau's satirical political comic

strip Dunesbury made its debut in

newspapers on October 26th. The

scathingly topical cartoon became the

first daily comic strip to win a Puliter

Prize for the strip titled Stonewall,

published on August 12th, 1974 that took

aim at the then unfolding Watergate

scandal. Although Dunesberry has gone on

several hiatuses, Trudeau continues to

publish new strips half a century later,

continuing to prove that comic strips

don't have to be funny. On November 4th,

the nation was stunned by the discovery

of Jeanie, a 13-year-old girl who had

grown up in almost total isolation. Mr.

Wy, why did you keep your daughter in a

room?

>> Mr. Wy has no comment.

>> The abuse was so severe that Jeanie had

no concept of language. When her mother

finally got her out of the house,

Jeanie's developmental age was similar

to that of an infants. Jeanie became of

war to the state and although her case

initially received widespread attention,

she never made a significant recovery

and her current whereabouts are unknown.

Tragedy struck again on November 14th

when a jet carrying the Marshall

University football team crashed in

Kenova, West Virginia. The team had been

returning from a loss to East Carolina

University when the plane struck some

trees during its approach to the

tri-state airport and crashed. Everyone

on board perished, including 37 players,

the coach, and 25 team boosters. The

devastating loss nearly resulted in

Marshall suspending its football program

indefinitely. Flash forward to December

22nd, 2006 when the film We Are Marshall

debuted. The movie stars Matthew McConna

and a PMCU Anthony Mackey. Chicainery

was up in the air on December 5th when

the Stanley Cup, the Khan Smite trophy,

and the Bill Masterson trophy were all

stolen during a break-in at the Hockey

Hall of Fame in Toronto. Luckily, the

Stanley Cup was only a replica, but the

other two trophies were very real. The

trophies were unceremoniously returned

just a few weeks later when the thieves

left them in the driveway of a Toronto

police officer after discovering that as

far as ransom goes, the trophies were

basically worthless.

One of the oddest meetings in White

House history occurred on December 21st

when Elvis Presley paid President

Richard Nixon a visit in the Oval

Office. The king of rock and roll

dropped in on Nixon to offer his

services as an anti-drug spokesman,

showing up at the White House gates

unannounced. The Secret Service didn't

bother to search the king. If they had,

they would have discovered the antique

Colt 45 pistol Presley carried inside,

which he presented to Nixon as a gift.

It's good to be king, just for a while.

The famous photograph of their strange

conversation is the single most

requested image from the National

Archives. And that's how 1970 ended,

with a historic meeting of two rulers,

neither of whom would reign much longer.

1971 was right around the corner,

bringing the demise of several more

musical icons and the conviction of one

of the 20th century's most notorious

criminals. And Dirty Harry would begin

patrolling cinema streets. Jeez, the 70s

need to lighten up, but that is for next

year. Coming soon, 1971.

The 70s got off to a rough start. 1971

was still bogged down with tragedy,

civil unrest, and sinister omens of the

years to come. But there was still

plenty of time for some classic records,

some unlikely new television heroes, and

the second coming of the happiest place

on Earth. We're going to talk about the

news, culture, sports, and

entertainment, and all that was weird in

the 70s. This is Timeline.

[Music]

Get ready for the end of one crime of

the century and the beginning of another

because this episode we're talking 1971.

Now time to give all those other years

the hairy eye and get down with 1971.

>> It marks, as we like to say, the end of

an era. The ban on television and radio

ads for cigarettes signed by President

Nixon the previous year went into effect

on New Year's Day, bidding a fond

farewell to the days of Fred Flintstone

taking long, flavorful drags off a

carton of Winston's.

>> I got a better idea. Let's take a

Winston break. Winston's got that

filter.

>> 4 days later, former heavyweight champ

Sunny Liston was discovered in his home

by his wife Gerald Dean. Although his

death was ruled an accidental overdose,

there were signs of a possible struggle

and questions about what may have really

happened remain to this day. A legendary

figure in boxing, ironically, Lon's most

famous fight was a seventhround loss in

1964 when the heavily favored champion

lost his title to an upandcomer named

Cashious Clay.

>> They might be straddling it. That might

be all, ladies and gentlemen. Get up

there, Joe. Get up there. Get up in the

ring. from Television City in Hollywood.

>> Boy, the way Glen Miller played

>> songs.

[Music]

Guys like us, we had it made.

[Music]

>> Charles Manson and three girl members of

his so-called family, all were found

guilty of murder in the first degree.

The end of January closed the book on

one of the 20th century's most notorious

crimes when Charles Manson was convicted

of his involvement in the Tate Labianca

murders on January 25th. Manson and

three of his followers, Susan Atkins,

Patricia Krenwinkle, and Leslie Vanhton,

were sentenced to death for the brutal

slayings that took the lives of six

people, but their sentences were reduced

to life in prison following a temporary

ban on capital punishment in the state

of California. Manson famously modeled

part of his twisted worldview on the

lyrics to the Beatles song Helter

Skelter. Wonder how hard he took the Fab

Four's breakup. A similar fate awaited

Manson's fourth co-conspirator later

that year when Tex Watson was convicted

of seven counts of first-degree homicide

on October 12th. Watson had been tried

separately after fleeing to Texas and

fighting extradition for several months

following his arrest. Texas currently

serving a life sentence. Elsewhere in

Crime and Punishment, NYPD officer Frank

Serpico was shot during a bust on

February 3rd. Despite being severely

wounded, his fellow officers refused a

radio for help and a random civilian

called the ambulance that ultimately

saved his life. Serpico had gained

notoriety as a whistleblower calling out

police corruption. And his shooting

became a national news story as details

came out suggesting Serpico's fellow

officers tried to off him in

retaliation. It became such a story that

it was made into a movie two years later

starring Alpuccino as the hero cop.

>> I'm an officer. I'm a police officer.

>> Jesus Frank, how was I supposed to

recognize you?

>> Believe it or not, JC Penney was a real

guy and he kicked off the affordably

priced bucket on February 12th. James

Cash Penny founded the department store

chain in 1902 in Keer, Wyoming, and

stayed involved with the company until

his passing at the ripe bold age of 95.

According to popular legend, he once

personally trained a young employee the

most efficient way to gift wrap

packages. The employees name Sam Walton,

the future founder of Walmart. Vice

president and future Nixon Fall Guy

Spiru Agnu injured two people after

hitting two T-shots into the crowd

during a golf game the day before

Valentine's Day. Agnu was playing a

foresome with pro golfer Doug Sanders,

screen legend Bob Hope, and baseball

great Willie Mays. More on Willie later.

The vice president sliced his first shot

of the day and struck an elderly man and

his wife. Then he teed up his second

shot and sliced again. This time hitting

a woman in the ankle and sending her to

the hospital. Bagu managed to play the

rest of the game without injuring anyone

else. But nailing three spectators with

two consecutive T-shots is admittedly

kind of impressive. This incident of

weaponized vice presidents wouldn't be

topped until 34 years later when Dick

Cheney shot a 78-year-old lawyer in the

face during a hunting trip. Luckily, the

man's injuries weren't serious because

no one could agree on how much beer had

been present at the time of the

incident.

>> Butterfield, are you aware of the

installation of any listening devices in

the Oval Office of the president?

>> A day after the golfing incident, Nixon

had a secret taping system installed in

the White House. Nixon had grown

increasingly paranoid and demanded

constant surveillance of every

conversation that took place in the Oval

Office, his executive office, and his

office at Camp David, as well as several

phone lines. It was the beginning of the

Watergate scandal, which will continue

to play out in the next episode. No

spoilers.

>> The Watergate scandal became a whole new

ball game.

>> Moving into March, the Door's frontman,

Jim Morrison, left the United States for

the last time on March 11th. Morrison

packed his bags and left for Paris. The

Lizard King was trying to avoid a Miami

jail sentence stemming from his indecent

exposure conviction the previous

September. The story of one of rock's

most iconic performers would end just a

few short months later when Morrison

passed away in the city of light on July

3rd at age 27. The 1970s had another

member to the infamous 27 club.

Morrison's official cause of death was

heart failure, although no autopsy was

performed. 2 weeks after Morrison left

on his ill- fated trip, late night King

Ed Sullivan aired the final episode of

his hugely influential variety show. By

the reception here, you've been fine.

Now get home safely. Good night.

>> The final episode of The Ed Sullivan

Show went out over the airwaves on March

28th. Sullivan helped launch the careers

of some of the 20th century's biggest

entertainment legends, including Elvis,

the Beatles, and Michael Jackson. Not a

bad run if he could only have held out

for Billy Isish.

>> When people started getting so

interested in black folks,

>> how many men were in the ambush?

>> You were pretty good news to me slapping

up on some white cops.

>> I want them. Do you hear? And I want

them now.

We'll be right back.

>> What are you doing here?

>> I want to take your picture.

>> I can't come down. I'm studying.

>> Well, that's okay. I can take it from

here. The new Kodak teleinatic camera.

>> National Public Radio or NPR aired its

first broadcast a month later on April

27th. The not for-profit radio news

organization was created by Congress's

Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which

determined that it was in the public

interest for the government to encourage

the growth and development of

nonprofitformational,

educational, and cultural broadcasting.

Just a few weeks later, NPR broadcast

the first episode of its flagship

newscast, All Things Considered, which

still airs to this day, Monday through

Friday.

>> You know what I think I'm going to do

then? Just for the hell of it, tell me.

I'm going to take this right foot

and I'm going to whoop you up that side

of your face.

>> Really? Really?

>> On May 21st, Marvin Gay released his

landmark album, What's Going On? The

soulful concept album is told from the

point of view of a veteran returning

home from the Vietnam War to a country

rife with intolerance and injustice and

featured hit songs like Mercy Mercy Me,

Inner City Blues, and the title track

What's Going On. The album was partially

inspired by letters Gay received from

his brother Frankie, who was drafted at

age 25. What's Going On has been hailed

by both critics and musicians alike as

one of the best albums ever recorded.

What's going on?

What's going on?

>> Just a few short months after watching

the vice president devastate some

unsuspecting voters at a golf game,

baseball legend Willie Mays hit his

638th career home run with the San

Francisco Giants.

>> There's a swing back

and it by

>> setting the National League record of

1,950 runs scored on May 30th. Maize had

turned 40 earlier that month and had

started playing for the Giants back in

1951, but his time in San Francisco and

in Major League Baseball was winding

down. Maize would be traded to the New

York Mets, where he finished out his

iconic career a year later. Returning to

the world of music, about 1,000 Grateful

Dead fans drank apple cider spiked with

LSD during a concert on May 31st.

Whoopsies. And presumably took a long,

strange trip to the venue's bathroom. A

little over 30 concert goers got

themselves checked out at a nearby

hospital, but no one was hospitalized by

the incident. So, if Ben andor Jerry is

watching, they might get an idea for a

new ingredient to spice up Cherry

Garcia.

>> Hi, I'm Ben. I'm Jerry.

>> An LSD ice cream. He is very powerful

stuff.

>> Where are my matters?

I didn't even introduce myself to you,

gentlemen.

>> My name is John Shaft. Freeze. The day

after Independence Day, President Nixon

ratified the 26th Amendment, which

lowered the legal voting age from 21 to

18. The amendment was partially in

response to criticism of the Vietnam

War, in which the average American

serviceman was 19 years old. The slogan,

old enough to fight, old enough to vote,

became a popular chant for activists

leading up to the amendment. The

following day, music legend Louis

Armstrong passed away at age 69. After a

career spanning nearly 50 years, the

jazz trumpeter's trademark grally

singing voice remains one of the most

recognized in the history of popular

music. And his signature hit, What a

Wonderful World, is still in regular

rotation. Ironically, often in

depressing movie montages. Moving into

August, the summer came to a close with

the death of SeaWorld's flagship

performer, Shamu the Killer Whale. In

case you never did the math yourself,

SeaWorld's famed mascot, Shamu, isn't

one impossibly elderly killer whale, but

actually a name given to several

different orcas over the years. The

original Shamu was a female captured as

a juvenile and sold to SeaWorld in 1966.

But Shamu experienced a rapid and

shocking decline in the months leading

up to her death. On April 20th, Shamu

attacked a SeaWorld employee named Anne

Godsy during a televised stunt, grabbing

the woman in her jaws and repeatedly

dragging her underwater. It was a

harrowing incident that would be echoed

decades later in February 2010 when

SeaWorld trainer Don Brancho was

attacked and killed by a 12,000lb orca

named Tikcom during a performance. The

attack was the basis for the 2013

documentary Blackfish. Just over 2 weeks

later, prisoners seized control of the

maximum security Attekica Correctional

Facility outside of Buffalo, New York.

Over,200 inmates captured an exercise

yard and held 39 guards and prison

employees hostage for 4 days until

Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller finally

instructed state police to retake the

prison by force. When the dust settled,

of the 39 inmates and hostages who died,

all but four were slain by police

gunfire, and 89 others were injured.

>> The 4-day insurrection at New York's

Attica State Prison came to a tragic end

this morning. Negotiations gave way to

force, making this the bloodiest prison

incident the country has seen in four

decades.

>> On the same day as Atteka, former Beatle

John Lennon released his album, Imagine.

The album was both a critical and

commercial hit, earning the number one

spot on the Billboard charts and a

double platinum certification, selling

over 2 million copies. The title track

would go on to become Lennin's

bestselling song as a solo artist and

one of the most celebrated pop songs of

the past half century. Two days later,

Soviet Premier Nikita Kruev passed away.

As the leader of the Soviet Union during

the first decade of the Cold War, Kruev

attempted to adopt a policy of peaceful

coexistence with the United States,

which did not earn him much love back

home. Although he did famously bang his

shoe on a table at a meeting of the

United Nations to get everyone's

attention. Surely that deserves some

love. Kruev was forced to resign in 1964

after the embarrassment of the Cuban

missile crisis and spent the rest of his

life in disgrace and isolation. No,

usually we meet in the lobby. Um, we

discuss the film there and I record

their comments. Uh, that's all.

>> Oh, you do it in the lobby?

>> Yes.

>> Oh, fine.

>> Heading into October, the happiest place

on earth opened its doors for a second

time when Walt Disney World officially

admitted its first guest in Orlando,

Florida on October 1st. The resort

opened with just the Magic Kingdom. But

half a century later, the assorted parks

and attractions cover almost 25,000

acres of Florida swamp land. The very

first guests to be admitted to Walt

Disney World were the Windsor family,

who were given a lifetime pass for free

admission. The cost of a ticket back

then was $ 350 for adults and $1 for

kids under 12 compared to $19 per day in

2022. Those lifetime passes turned out

to be a pretty sweet deal. Hey there and

welcome aboard. You're right on time for

another super slick ride on the Soul

Train. We'll get rolling with the

exciting stylistics right after this

communication.

We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> Now from Milton Bradley, a weird game,

Voice of the Mummy. Press the button.

From within the tomb, the mummy speaks.

>> Out.

>> All right, Popeye's here.

>> Get your hands on your heads. Get off

the barn. Get on the wall. Come on,

battle. All right, come on. Face the

window. Move. Face the wall. Turn around

there. Turn around. Move. Andrew Lloyd

Weber and Tim Rice's famous musical

Jesus Christ Superstar debuted on

Broadway October 12th. The musical is a

loose retelling of the gospel as a

tongue-in-cheek rock opera, so it didn't

generate any controversy whatsoever.

Before they became the two biggest names

in musical theater, Weber and Rice were

unable to secure funding to produce

Jesus Christ Superstar as a show. So,

they released it as a concept album that

generated enough buzz to finally land

them on Broadway. The show was a smash

hit and held the record for the longest

running musical in London's West End

until it lost the title to Weber's 1981

musical Hacks.

>> Game four, the first night game in World

Series history.

>> In a surprising first, the first ever

night game of the World Series was

played on October 13th between the

Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh

Pirates at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers

Stadium. Night games had been a thing

for several decades at that point. So,

why did it take so long to bring the

World Series to prime time? In short,

like with most decisions in Major League

Baseball, it was a question of

tradition. Bucking that tradition paid

off. The game drew an estimated 63

million viewers, the largest audience

ever for a nighttime sporting event. The

end of October sadly claimed another

rock and roll icon when Dwayne Alman of

the Alman Brothers Band tragically

perished in a motorcycle crash on

October 29th. Sky Dog was driving along

a highway in Mon Georgia when he lost

control and collided with a truck. The

title and artwork of the Almond Brothers

band's 1972 album Eat a Peach is both a

reference to a quote from Dwayne Alman

and the circumstances of his tragic

accident. In an eerily ironic twist,

just over one year later, the band's

bass player Barry Oakley would fatally

crash his own motorcycle into the side

of a city bus in Mon, not far from the

site of Dwayne Alman's accident. The Los

Angeles Lakers began their historic

33game winning streak November 5th,

defeating the Baltimore Bullets, now the

Washington Wizards, 110 to 106. Led by

NBA great like Wilt Chamberlain and

Jerry West, the team went on an epic

two-month tear that remains both a

league record and the longest undefeated

streak in American professional sports.

Pop icon Sher scored her first solo hit

when Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves

reached number one on the Billboard

charts November 6th. Although she's gone

on record in recent years as not

thinking much of the song herself, it

was an undeniable smash that revived her

career as a solo artist. Gypsies,

Tramps, and Thieves shipped over 1

million copies in the US, earning in a

gold certification and making it the

bestselling single in the history of MCA

records at the time. Sticking with

music, British rock group Led Zeppelin

released their fourth untitled album,

generally referred to as Led Zeppelin 4,

2 days later. In addition to being the

band's highests selling album, Led

Zeppelin 4 is notable for containing

Stairway to Heaven, the group's

signature hit and one of the most famous

classic rock songs of all time. So

famous, Mike Meyers wasn't allowed to

play it.

>> No Stairway denied.

>> 3 days later, counterculture icon and

godfather of Gonzo journalism, Hunter S.

Thompson, published the first part of

his signature work, Fear and Loathing in

Las Vegas, in Rolling Stone magazine.

The serialized novel, which follows

Thompson on a drugfueled vendor while

attending a race on assignment for

Sports Illustrated, is a chaotic blend

of fact and fiction that also serves as

a post-mortem of the hippie movement of

the 1960s. The book was a hit, and while

several attempts were made to adapt it

into a film over the years, a movie

wouldn't be released until 27 years

later when surreal filmmaker and Monty

Python alumnist Terry Gileiam

successfully adapted Thompson's work

into the 1998 film of the same name,

starring Johnny Depp as Thompson.

>> Wait, we can't stop here. This is Bat

Country. One of the most enduring

mysteries of American crime went down

the night of November 24th when a man

calling himself DB Cooper hijacked

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305

heading from Portland to Seattle.

Shortly into the flight, Cooper gave

flight attendants a note claiming he had

a bomb and would detonate it if he

didn't receive a hefty ransom. After

briefly landing the plane to collect

$200,000 in ransom money, Cooper

parachuted out of the rear of the plane

mid-flight and was never seen again.

More than half a century later, he has

never been conclusively identified.

Maybe he was just really freaked out

about going home for Thanksgiving.

>> We'll be right back.

>> The French have their rooffort, the

Dutch their Edom. But in America, the

cheese is Cracker Barrel. Crack Barrel

brand cheddar from craft. Moving into

December, the Soviet space probe Mars 3

became the first spacecraft to soft land

on the surface of the red planet on the

2nd o December. For reference, a soft

landing is essentially the opposite of a

crash landing. The probe touched down on

December 2nd in the middle of a massive

dust storm 9 days after its sister probe

Mars 2 crash landed on the planet.

Although the lander failed shortly into

the mission, the Mars 3 orbiter

continued to circle the planet and

transmit data and images back to Earth

for the next 8 months. 8 days later,

musician Frank Zappa failed to achieve

orbit when a deranged fan shoved him off

the stage during a performance at

London's Rainbow Theater on December

10th. Zappa was in the middle of a cover

of the Beatles I Want to Hold Your Hand

when the fan rushed on stage and threw

him off. He suffered serious injuries

that left him confined to a wheelchair

for over a year. Recalling the incident

in his 1989 autobiography, The Real

Frank Zappa book, Zappa wrote, "The band

Thought I Was Dead." Just a few days

earlier, a fan fired a flare gun during

one of Zappa's performances and set fire

to the Montro Casino in Geneva,

Switzerland. The fire inspired Deep

Purple, who were performing with Zappa

that night, to write their signature

song, Smoke on the Water. On the same

day as the Zappa attack, an unknown

filmmaker named George Lucas unwittingly

made history when he founded his

production company Lucasfilm in San

Rafael, California before it became

known as a workshop of dreams beloved by

every adolescent action figure

collector. Lucasfilm was a decidedly

small operation. At the time, the

creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones

had only the dystopian sci-fi film THX

11138 under his belt and was still a few

years away from changing movies forever

with his blockbuster space opera. Flash

forward to 40 years later when Lucas

would sell Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney

Company to the tune of $4 billion.

That's a lot of power converters.

[Music]

>> Stop it. Stop it, please. done by you.

>> And that's how 1971 came to a close with

a Drew and a Jedi giving us a glimpse of

the new wave of movies about to strike

Hollywood. 1972 was on its way with an

exciting new hobby from a video game

company and the most infamous political

scandal of the 20th century. Also, a

certain marblemouthed leading man would

make us all an offer we couldn't refuse.

But that's for next year. Coming soon,

1972.

>> Hi, Cass.

>> Hi, John.

>> How you doing? Fine and dandy.

>> I'm great, too.

>> I didn't ask you how you

>> pop culture was out of sight in 1972. TV

saw the beginning of a New Year's

tradition and the premiere of one of the

most popular dramas of all time. Radios

and record stores received several funky

new albums that would continue shifting

popular music from the sound of the 60s

into fresh new territory. Electronic

entertainment gained its first real

foothold. Sports history was made more

than once by an exciting new generation

of athletes. And one of the greatest

movies of all time was released in

theaters. It's not personal, it's

strictly business.

>> But the year was also bugging. Political

unrest continued around the globe and

every American old enough to watch the

nightly news would learn more about an

elite Washington DC building complex

than they knew about their own

grandmothers. We're going to talk about

the news, culture, sports, and

entertainment, and all that was weird in

the 70s. This is Timeline.

[Music]

Settle in for some historic news because

today we're talking 1972.

Now it's time to freak out in a

daydream.

>> And I'm lost in a day. Yeah.

>> The year would start off with a fox.

>> Hello, police. I want to report a

robbery.

>> How many men were four? Four.

>> That too many.

No, that's it. Were they colored?

>> Yeah, white.

>> Mid January would have a surprising new

footnote to the Second World War when a

Japanese soldier was discovered hiding

out on Guam nearly three decades after

Japan's surrender when US forces

recaptured the island from Japanese

control in 1944. Sergeant Suichi Yakoy

had disappeared into the jungle rather

than surrender. And there he remained

living off the land for 28 years. When

Yokcoy was discovered by locals and

given the long overdue news about the

end of the war, he returned home to

Japan as a national hero. On Sunday,

January 30th, 13 unarmed demonstrators

in London, Northern Ireland were cut

down by British Army paratroopers in an

incident that would become known as

Bloody Sunday. The demonstrators were

part of a march protesting the British

government's policy of arresting and

imprisoning anyone suspected of being an

Irish nationalist. The government

declared the march unlawful and sent the

army to confront the demonstrators. This

was one of the most significant events

of the troubles, the period of Irish

nationalist orchestrating violent

campaigns to force Great Britain to free

Ireland from its rule. Moving into

February, Canadian folk rock musician

Neil Young released his signature album

Harvest on the 1st. Harvest contains

collaborations with a number of major

artists like Linda Ronstat, David

Crosby, and James Taylor, and went on to

become the best-selling album of the

year and the biggest of Young's career.

The lead single, Heart of Gold, sold

over 1 million copies and remains

Young's only number one hit in the US.

Not a bad harvest for the soulful Kuck.

This was Germany in the early 30s. This

was Sally BS in the early 30s. Full of

life.

>> I love parties. Doesn't my body drive

you wild with desire

>> and love?

>> I may have my tiny faults.

>> God damn it, I'm going to have a baby.

>> Sally is rather knowledgeable in these

areas.

>> Does it really matter as long as you're

having fun?

>> Every night at the Royale Theater, the

50s come to life. Greece.

>> The musical Greece opened on Broadway

for the first time on Valentine's Day,

starring Barry Boswick and Carol Demis

as teen lovers Danny and Sandy. The

musical received seven Tony Award

nominations and ran for nearly 4,000

performances featuring notable

replacement actors like Richard Gear,

Patrick Sees, Adrien Barau, Peter

Gallagher, and John Travolta. Travolta

would retain the role of Dany in the

film version, which hit theaters 6 years

later on June 16th, 1978. The film made

household names out of Travolta and his

co-star Olivia Newton John. Shifting

gears from the world of hot rodding

teams to the world of sports, Wilt the

Stilts Chamberlain became the first NBA

player to score 30,000 points on

February 16th. Ironically, despite his

legendary status as a scorer, both on

and off the court, Chamberlain only put

up 10 points the day he made basketball

history. 5 days later, Richard Nixon

became the first US president to visit

the People's Republic of China on

February 21st. We seek an open world, a

world in which no people, great or

small, will live in angry isolation.

>> Nixon's visit was hailed as a strategic

move to drive a wedge between China and

the Soviet Union, which had been more

heavily supporting North Vietnam during

the Vietnam War.

>> You found paradise in America, had a

good trade, made a good living, police

protected you, and there were courts of

law. I want you to rest well and a month

from now this Hollywood big shot's going

to give you what you want.

>> Too late. They start shooting in a week.

>> I'm going to make him an offer with you.

>> Coming back to Nixon, the president's

administration had former Beatles

frontman John Lennon and his wife Yoko

Ono served with deportation papers in

mid-March. The Nixon administration

argued that Lenin was in the country

illegally. And immigration's policy has

always been not to split a family. So

they're saying that seeing as Mr. Lenon

is not eligible because I was bust in

England in 1968. Planted, by the way,

both better get out.

>> But because Nixon is going to Nixon, the

deportation order more to do with the

singer's criticism of the Nixon

administration and America's involvement

in the Vietnam War. A number of

celebrities and public figures wrote

statements petitioning the Immigration

and Naturalization Service to allow

Lenin and Ono to remain in the country,

including Bob Dylan, Joan Bayz, John

Updike, Joyce Carol Oats, and Tony

Curtis.

70s heartthrob Bert Reynolds created

what would become one of the internet's

most famous images for the April 1972

issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. The man

who defined macho for an entire

generation kicked back on a bare skin

rug wearing nothing but a twinkle in his

eye and that world famous mustache.

Reynolds claimed he had been drinking

the morning of the shoot and was in his

own words plastered by the time he posed

for the legendary photo. No word on how

much the bear had to drink.

We'll be right back.

>> Bowling sure makes me hot and thirsty.

This is a job for Kool-Aid.

>> Hey, Kool-Aid.

>> Oh yeah, Kool-Aid here bringing you fun.

Kool-Aid got thirst on the run. Get a

big wide happy ear to wear. Kool-Aid.

The biggest smile is a Kool-Aid smile.

>> Your friend's cool. My friend's

Kool-Aid.

>> Mobster Joe Gallow was gunned down in

the middle of his 43rd birthday party at

a restaurant in New York City's Little

Italy neighborhood on April 7th.

>> At least 14 persons witnessed the

killing, including Gallow's wife, a

bride of three weeks.

>> Gallow, an alleged member of the

Columbbo crime family, had gained a

reputation as a wild man, earning him

the nickname Crazy Joe. Notorious mob

enforcer Frank Sheeran, aka the

Irishman, later claimed responsibility

for whacking Gallow, but his claim has

been disputed by some investigators and

witnesses. To this day, Gallow's murder

officially remains unsolved, although

Shiran's version of events was depicted

in the 2019 Martin Scorsesi film, The

Irishman. Moving into May and the other

side of the law, famed FBI boss and

future Leonardo DiCaprio facial

prosthetic J. Edgar Hoover passed away.

Jay Edgar Hoover was one of the giants.

His long life brimmmed over with

magnificent achievement and dedicated

service to this country which he loves

so well. Hoover served as director of

the Federal Bureau of Investigation for

nearly 50 years, but Hoover became a

controversial figure toward the end of

his career, in particular for his

widespread surveillance of American

citizens suspected of being communists

or communist sympathizers.

>> Communist back here.

>> Congress passed a law requiring all

future FBI directors to be approved by

the Senate and served no longer than 10

years. Speaking of controversy, Alabama

Governor George Wallace was seriously

wounded in an assassination attempt on

May 15th. Wallace, who staunchly opposed

desegregation and famously stood on the

steps of the enrollment office of the

University of Alabama, blocking two

black students from entering when the

school was racially integrated in 1963.

Wallace was attending a campaign rally

in Laurel, Maryland, when he was shot by

21-year-old Arthur Bremer, leaving

Wallace permanently paralyzed from the

waist down. Wallace was reelected as

Alabama's governor two more times,

finally ending his political career in

1982 as one of the longest serving

governors in American history. The

Philadelphia Phillies Greg Luskinsky

pulled off a historic shot of his own a

day later when he belted a home run out

of Philly's Veteran Stadium that struck

the replica Liberty Bell at top the

bleachers in center field. The bell was

parked at the highest point of the

stadium some 500 ft away from home

plate. No wonder Luskinsky was nicknamed

the bull. The end of a different era was

underway two weeks later when White

House uh plumbers first broke into the

Watergate complex in Washington DC on

May 28th. These plumbers were a group of

ex FBI and CIA led by former FBI agent

Gordon Litty who broke into the

Democratic National Committee

headquarters in the Watergate complex to

plant recording devices ostensibly to

gather information that would help Nixon

in his upcoming reelection campaign.

We'll see in a minute how the president

couldn't leave well enough alone. David

Bow's groundbreaking album, The Rise and

Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders

from Mars, was released 9 days later on

June 6th. A concept album, loosely

telling the story of an extraterrestrial

rockstar messiah who let fame go to his

head. Ziggy Stardust was part album and

part performance art.

>> I wanted to define the archetype

messiah, rockstar. That's all I wanted

to do. And I used the trappings of

Kabuki theater, mind technique, fringe

New York music, like my references were

Velvet Underground.

>> Bowie created a Ziggy alter ego he would

embody during live shows for the next 18

months. The album made Bowie a bonafide

superstar and is considered to be among

his finest work as well as one of the

best and most influential rock records

of all time. Democratic National

Committee is trying to solve a spy

mystery. It began before dawn Saturday

when five intruders were captured by

police inside the offices of the

committee in Washington.

>> Among the five men was former CIA agent

James W. McCord Jr., who was then

serving as the security coordinator for

Nixon's re-election committee. The men

were discovered with burglary tools,

recording equipment, several cameras,

and actual tear gas guns in case they

needed to take out Spectre, I guess.

However, President Nixon announced that

a White House investigation had

determined that no part of his

administration had been involved with

the break-in and that the men had acted

independently.

>> The easiest course would be for me to

blame those to whom I delegated the

responsibility to run the campaign, but

that would be a cowardly thing to do.

>> His version of the story would go

unchallenged for about a month. More on

that in a bit.

Electrical engineers Nolan Bushnell and

Ted Dabney took the first step toward

dooming the productivity of future

generations when they founded Atari Inc.

on June 27th in Sunnyvale, California.

Bushnell and Dabney had recently

designed the first arcade video game

Computer Space in 1971 and were looking

to continue producing electronic games.

The company's name comes from the

Japanese word Atari, which Bushnell

selected because of its use in the

ancient board game go. 4 days later, the

first official UK gay pride rally was

held in London on July 1st. The date was

chosen to mark the anniversary of the

Stonewall riots, which had ignited after

police raided the popular gay club, the

Stonewall Inn, in New York City on June

28th, 1969. Approximately 2,000 people

attended the rally. Today, Pride in

London continues to run annual festivals

celebrating diversity in the LGBTQ

community as one of the largest and

longest running pride events in the

world. In the world of sports, tennis

icon Billy Jean King won her eighth

Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon on

July 7th. It was one of three Grand Slam

singles victories King earned that year,

which probably had something to do with

Sports Illustrated naming her sports

person of the year alongside college

basketball coach John Wooden in their

December 25th issue. King was the first

woman to win the award. Later that

month, a staggering 57 homicides were

committed in New York City over a 7-day

period that ended at midnight on July

20th. That staggering number was a

record for the city at the time, which

had reported an average weekly homicide

toll of 31 the previous year.

Investigators theorized that a

combination of a sweltering heatwave,

payday, and random chance may have

contributed to the unusually high number

of homicides, which included 26

stabbings, a genuine mob hit, and an

incineration. Yep, you heard that one

right. That was a bad week to be awake

in the city that never sleeps.

[Music]

>> We'll be right back.

>> What's this stuff? Some cereal. It's

supposed to be good for you. Did you try

it?

>> I'm not going to try it. You try it.

>> I'm not going to try it. Let's get

Mikey.

>> Yeah. He won't need it. He hates

everything.

>> He likes it. Hey, Mikey. When you bring

life home, don't tell the kids it's one

of those nutritional cereals you've been

trying to get them to eat. You're the

only one who has to know.

>> Well, the system's done all right by me.

>> Why do you go on these trips with me?

>> I like my life, Louis. Got a nice job,

got a nice house, nice kid.

>> Make that sound rather shitty, Lewis.

>> Yeah, but why do you go on these trips

with me?

Sticking with crime, Washington Post

reporters Bob Woodward and Carl

Bernstein published their first article

investigating the Watergate scandal on

August 1st. The pair reported that a

check for $25,000 originally intended

for Nixon's re-election campaign had

been deposited into the account of one

of the Watergate burglars arrested for

the break-in. Considering Nixon had

emphatically stated that no one in his

administration had any knowledge of the

break-in, the deposit was admittedly

hard to explain. And uh what's that

word? Oh yeah, suspicious. Woodward and

Bernstein would continue investigating

the Watergate break-in for the next two

years. Later that month, John Lennin

played his final full public concert on

August 30th. Lennin and his wife, Yoko

Ono, mostly performed songs from their

latest album, Sometime in New York. But

the rascal beetle snuck in a beetleless

rendition of Come Together, as well as

his signature hit, Imagine. Paul

McCartney had been invited to attend as

well, but ultimately turned the offer

down.

>> This is a CBS News special report.

Terror at the Olympics.

>> Just 6 days later, members of a

Palestinian terrorist group known as

Black September laid siege to the

Olympic Village apartment of Israeli

athletes competing in the 1972 summer

games at Munich. The terrorists murdered

two athletes and took nine others

hostage, demanding the release of over

230 Arab prisoners incarcerated in

Israeli jails. All of the hostages were

slain in a shootout at the Munich

airport along with five of the

terrorists and a German police officer.

Rather than canceling the games

entirely, the decision was made to

suspend competition for 24 hours to hold

memorial services for the Israeli

athletes. In response to the siege, the

Israeli government sent a team of MSAD

agents to track down and eliminate the

Black September terrorists responsible.

Flash forward 33 years when Steven

Spielberg's film Munich, a dramatization

of the siege in the subsequent revenge

mission was released on December 23rd,

2005. September would see the start of

some now famous TV series.

>> It's a trial. I have to be there at 10

tomorrow.

>> Daddy, how can you be so oppressive?

It's the older generation's answer to

everything.

>> You see, today is Sunday. Not that I'm a

religious man, but I feel on this day of

worship, it would be wrong to strangle

your children.

>> Big important thing in your career

that's happened to you. I mean, this

kind of

>> aside from Reese was the musical I did

on Broadway, which sort of led to Mod.

And Mod's the first television thing

I've ever done.

>> I've heard about you. I've heard about

your love making.

>> That's nothing.

>> That's what I heard.

>> Then hold it, Carol. Come on, honey.

Can't you put a little more pizzazz in

it? I mean, this is a tribute to

Burlesque, not the Walden.

Going to

>> fly down now and get some sleep.

>> Good night, Dad. Good night, Elizabeth.

>> Good night, John Boy. Good night, Jim

Bob. Good night, Jim Bob.

>> Good night, Jim Bob.

>> Many.

Yeah. What's in here?

Soots, sir. Be the judge of that.

Heading

[Music]

into October, Uruguayan Air Force Flight

571, carrying the Old Christians Club

rugby team and several of their family

members and friends, crashed into the

Andes Mountains. The survivors were

stranded in the freezing mountains for

the next 72 days, huddling in the plains

fuselage for shelter and melting snow

for drinking water. To not starve,

survivors were forced to consume the

remains of those who had perished during

the crash or later succumb to the

elements. The group began to lose hope

as their numbers tragically dwindled

until December 23rd when rescue

helicopters finally arrived. The story

of the team's incredible ordeal spending

over 2 months in the frozen wilderness

was the inspiration for the 1993 film

Alive, starring Ethan Hawk and Josh

Hamilton, who are extremely not from

Uruguay.

>> The paper covers the rock. The rock

crushes the scissors.

>> Is not playing a child's game a waste of

time?

>> In games, children teach, sometimes more

than books. Calm. Instruct an old man.

>> We now go to Miami, where Polaroid

unveiled the world's first truly instant

camera on October 26th.

>> And now, a compact folding

electronically controlled motordriven

single lens reflex camera capable of

focusing from infinity down to 10 in.

The SX70 reduced the development process

to a single step. Just click the button

to take your shot, and the camera took

care of the rest, spitting out a square

photograph that developed in seconds

right before your eyes. The square

images and development process have

since become synonymous with the phrase

taking a Polaroid. On the same day as

Polaroid's debut, the National Park

Service began the first guided tours of

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, the

infamous maximum security prison located

on San Francisco's Alcatres Island. The

prison still operates as a museum and

tourist attraction to this day, and

several former guards and inmates alike

have worked there. Although there were a

handful of attempts, nobody ever

successfully escaped the island in the

three decades that it operated as a

federal prison, except for Shan Connory.

>> Welcome to the rock.

>> Richard Nixon was reelected as the

president of the United States in a

historic landslide victory. Uh some are

all of the polls have closed now in a

dozen states and the early returns put

President Nixon as expected out in front

and by a sizable margin.

>> Despite the growing stain of the

Watergate scandal, Nixon won 49 out of

50 states, completely obliterating

George McGovern.

>> Never known a national election when I

would be able to go to bed earlier than

tonight.

>> Nixon wouldn't be able to enjoy the

sweet taste of success for long, though.

Even though he just earned another

four-year term as commander-in-chief,

his days in the White House were

numbered.

>> We'll be right back.

>> Intimate by Revlon.

Diamond Facet spray mist. How'd you

know? An intimate teddy bear. He looks

just like you. Basket of intimate.

Did he give me intimate because I like

it or because he likes it? Ho ho ho.

>> Give her something intimate. It's really

a man's fragrance. Intimate by Revlon.

>> Five short months after starting the

company, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell

released the revolutionary video game

Pong at the end of November. Essentially

a stripped down version of table tennis.

The game was initially designed by Atari

engineer Alan Alorn as an exercise, but

after installing a prototype machine at

Andicap's Tavern in Sunnyale,

California, Pong became an instant

success. The game is credited with

launching the video game industry,

making it partially responsible for why

you have to wait so long for a new

timeline episode. These video games do

not play themselves. The coldness of

December would hit on the 7th as first

lady of the Philippines and noted shoe

collector Alda Marcos was stabbed in an

assassination attempt. Marcos was

presenting awards for a national

beautifification campaign when a man

emerged from the crowd and attacked her.

The asalent was taken out by police on

the spot, but Marcos suffered severe

damage to her arms and hands and had to

be flown to a hospital to recover.

Alda's husband, President of the

Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, had

placed the country under martial law in

September.

>> I signed Proclamation 1081, placing the

entire Philippines under martial law,

>> effectively transforming the Philippines

into a dictatorship under his rule. That

rule would last until February 26th,

1986 when the Marcos's fled the

presidential palace in Manila after

trying to overturn election results.

Evidence of the president's widespread

corruption quickly emerged, including

the embezzlement of billions from the

Philippine economy. Hey, 3,000 pairs of

shoes ain't cheap. Sadly, the good vibes

felt by Pittsburgh sports fans wouldn't

last when Pittsburgh Pirates all-star

rightfielder Roberto Clemente tragically

perished in a plane crash on December

31st. Clemente was on his way to

personally deliver relief supplies to

Nicaragua, which had been struck by a

devastating earthquake the week before.

Unfortunately, the plane was in

disrepair and overloaded, and it

exploded just after taking off from

Puerto Rico's International Airport. The

National Baseball Hall of Fame amended

their eligibility requirements to

postumously induct Clemente the

following year and renamed its annual

commissioners award to the Roberto

Clemente Award. 1972 came to a close

with the first ever broadcast of New

Year's Rocking Eve with Dick Clark.

Surprisingly, the inaugural broadcast

was actually titled Three Dog Nights New

Year's Rocking Eve and was hosted by

members of the psychedelic rock band

rather than Clark, who served more of a

field reporter position covering the

ball drop ceremony in Time Square.

>> Let me wish you happy new year, fellas.

If you think it's wild out there, it's

beginning to pour here at Times Square.

>> The show was a success and became an

annual television tradition for the next

40 years. Clark only missed one

broadcast in four decades, hosting his

final installment on December 31st, 2011

before passing away the following April

at age 82. And so 1972 came to a close

with one icon taking flight for the last

time and another counting down for the

first. But turn that frown upside down,

cousin. 1973 is just around the bend,

bringing more of the classic flicks,

righteous tunes, and freaky dicky

scandals that made the decade unique,

but that's for next year. Coming soon,

1973.

1973 started off with some muchneeded

good vibes. The end of a long and bloody

war was finally in sight, and America

took the space race to a stellar new

level. Plus, there were some seriously

nifty records to spin. But by the end of

the year, everyone was running on fumes,

literally. We're going to talk about the

news, culture, sports, and

entertainment, and all that was weird in

the 70s. This is Timeline.

Settle in for some historic news because

today we're talking 1973.

Now, I'll see you on the dark side of

the moon or the end of the episode,

whichever comes first. This is 1973.

The year would start off with a little

schoolhouse rock.

>> Sticking with catchy tunes, Elvis made

history with his Aloha from Hawaii

concert event on January 14th. The

hourlong show was broadcast live via

satellite from Honolulu International

Center, today known as the Neil S.

Blazedale Center to approximately three

dozen countries in Asia and the Oceanana

region. The concert was the first live

satellite broadcast featuring a single

performer. It also held the record for

sweatiest human on television until

Jimmy Swagger gave his infamous I have

sinned speech 15 years later.

>> I have sinned against you, my lord.

>> The very next day, President Richard

Nixon announced the United States had

suspended all offensive actions against

North Vietnam. The announcements came

just weeks after Nixon bombarded North

Vietnam with a two-week bombing

campaign, during which American forces

dropped over 20,000 tons of ordinance on

Hiang and Hanoi. 2 weeks later, the US

signed the Paris Peace Accords with

North Vietnam, the Vietkong, and South

Vietnam on January 27th. The agreement

called for an immediate ceasefire across

Vietnam, and for the United States to

begin withdrawing its forces and

dismantling its bases. In return, North

Vietnam agreed to release their

prisoners of war, including every

captive American.

>> Today, the largest contingent of re of

repatriated prisoners so far, 60 men,

were flown from Clark to Travis Air

Force Base, California.

>> It was effectively the end of the US's

involvement in the Vietnam War.

>> I'm going to give you 4 hours to get

away and I'm coming after you.

[Music]

>> 4 hours. Don't waste any more precious

time. Lean mean knockout producing

hitting machine George Foreman defeated

heavyweight champion Joe Frasier at the

Sunshine Showdown in Kingston, Jamaica

on January 22nd. Foreman, the 3 to1

underdog, took the undefeated Frasier

off his feet six times before the

referee stopped the fight. 1 minute and

35 seconds into the second round.

>> It is over in the second round. George

Foreman is the heavyweight champion of

the world. Foreman would defend his

heavyweight title twice before losing it

in one of the most famous boxing matches

in history. More on that next year. On

the same day as Foreman's victory, the

US Supreme Court reached its landmark

decision in the case of Ro v. Wade,

deciding that the American Constitution

conferred the right to have an abortion.

The 7-2 decision argued that a woman's

right to an abortion was protected by

the privacy rights guaranteed in the

14th Amendment. The court relied upon

the 1965 case of Griswald v. Connecticut

as precedent which established the right

to privacy with respect to intimate

practices. The decision would stand for

nearly 50 years until Ro. Wade was

overturned on June 24th, 2022 in a 6 to3

decision. The Supreme Court in DOS v.

Jackson Women's Health Organization

overturned Roie Wade and returned the

issue of abortion rights to individual

states on June 24th, 2022 in a 6-3

decision. Not to be outdone by foreman

or the Supreme Court, former President

Lyndon Baines Johnson also made

headlines on January 22nd when he passed

away. Johnson initially entered the

White House as John F. Kennedy's vice

president and was famously sworn in as

commander-in-chief on board Air Force

One after Kennedy's death on November

22nd, 1963. Despite popular successes

with the Voting Rights Act and Civil

Rights Act, Johnson received harsh

criticism for his inability to achieve

victory in the Vietnam War, and many of

the changes under his presidency were

undone by his successor, Richard Nixon.

Speaking of Nixon, at the end of

January, Watergate burglars G. Gordon

Litty and James McCord were convicted of

conspiracy, burglary, and placing

illegal recording devices for their

roles in the break-in. Four other

burglars, including Litty's fellow

former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt, had

already plead guilty earlier in the

month. With convictions and guilty plea

secured, Judge John J. Saraka, began

threatening the group with severe prison

sentences unless they spilled the beans

on their co-conspirators, namely

President Nixon. Stay tuned to see how

this whole Watergate thing shakes out.

Just a few hours north of DC that same

day, makeuploving band Kiss played their

first ever show at the Coventry Club in

Queens, New York for a crowd of less

than 10 people. Kiss would go on to

enjoy huge success as an arena rock band

for much of the decade. They slapped

their painted faces on every piece of

merchandise imaginable, including comic

books, a pinball game, toys, condoms,

and even the Kiss Casket. Moving into

February in the world of music, Iggy and

the Stooges released their third studio

album, Raw Power. Boasting a thrashing

hard rock sound, the chaotic vocals of

frontman Iggy Pop, and a mix by none

other than the thin white Duke himself,

David Bowie, Raw Power became the

group's signature record. Raw Power is

considered to be the most important punk

rock album ever recorded. Fresh off the

signing of the Paris Peace Accords from

the previous month, the first American

PS were released by North Vietnam on

February 12th. 142 of 591 prisoners were

set free in Hanoi and flown back to the

US for tearful reunions with their loved

ones at Travis Air Force Base in

California. The final American P was

released just over a month later on

March 29th. Speaking of notable

releases, pop group Tony Orlando and

Dawn's hit single Tie a Yellow Ribbon

Around the Old Oak Tree was released one

week later on February 19th. The song

told from the point of view of a man

returning home from prison and asking

his love to tie a yellow ribbon around

the oak tree in front of her house if he

is still welcome would hit the top 10 in

10 different countries. The catchy,

melodramatic jam is notable for being

referenced by Nicholas Cage in Conair.

>> We'll be right back.

New stick shifters. Honda Pinto Gremlin.

May look funny, but they're no joke.

Stick shifters get them in gear. Honda

gremlin disappear.

>> In late February, members of the

controversial group, the American Indian

Movement began a 71-day occupation of

Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine

Ridge Indian Reservation. Around 200

people participated in the occupation in

protest of the US government's failure

to honor tribal treaties and of sue

tribal chairman Richard Wilson and his

alleged corruption after Wilson narrowly

avoided impeachment earlier that month.

Gunfire was exchanged between protesters

and federal officers nearly every day,

resulting in two deaths and one serious

injury before AIM leaders finally

negotiated a surrender on May 8th.

>> The occupation of Wounded Knee ended

yesterday. Only 15 of the occupants were

arrested. the others were allowed to go

free.

>> Moving into March, Pink Floyd began a

736-w week occupation of the Billboard

200 with the release of their landmark

album, The Dark Side of the Moon, on

March 1st. The concept album was a mega

hit, selling over 45 million copies and

going platinum 14 times in the UK. And

The Dark Side of the Moon's album art

has become one of the most recognizable

images in music. If you sync up the

album to play alongside The Wizard of

Oz, well, well, just do it and see what

happens.

The next day, eight members of the

Palestinian terrorist group known as

Black September took control of the

Saudi Arabian embassy in Kartum, Sudan,

taking 10 diplomats hostage, including

officials from America, Belgium, Saudi

Arabia, and Jordan. In exchange for the

hostages, the terrorists demanded the

release of several captive Palestinians

being held in Israeli prisons, as well

as the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the man

convicted of assassinating Robert

Kennedy in 1968. Tragically, the

terrorists ended three of the hostages

after negotiations stalled before

ultimately surrendering to Sudin

authorities 3 days later. Turning to

sports, well, sort of. New York Yankees

pitcher Fritz Peterson and Mike Kikitch

each called bizarre press conferences on

the 5th of March to let the world know

that they had traded their wives. And

not just wives, they had traded their

entire families, including their

children and even their pets. Thanks for

the update, guys. How'd it work out?

Better than you might have expected.

While Kikitch and the former Mrs.

Peterson broke up rather quickly,

Peterson and the former Mrs. Kikitch are

still together at the time of this video

airing, almost 50 years later. 11

awkward family dinner dates later, Queen

Elizabeth 11 opened a new London Bridge

on March 15th. The new bridge was

actually the third London Bridge. London

Bridge II stood for roughly 600 years.

It was sold to an oil tycoon named

Robert Mccullik who had the bridge taken

apart and rebuilt in Lake Havsu City,

Arizona. A popular rumor suggested that

McCullik purchased the old London Bridge

by mistake, thinking he was actually

buying the way groovier Tower Bridge,

but the tycoon denied this until his

dying day four years later. Over in

Hollywood, Marlon Brando refused to

accept his best actor Oscar for his role

as Don Vito Corleon in The Godfather on

March 27th. Native American actress

Maria Louise Cruz, also known as Sasheen

Little Feather, spoke on the actor's

behalf, reading a statement written by

Brando explaining that he was declining

the award in protest of the portrayal of

Native Americans in film.

>> And he has asked me to tell you in a

very long speech which I cannot share

with you presently

because of time.

>> Brando was the second actor to refuse an

Oscar in his many years. George C. Scott

had declined to accept his best actor

award for his role as Patton in 1971

because he objected to the idea of a

ceremony that pitted actors against each

other. Good point, George. Heading into

April, a notable first. The first mobile

phone call was made by Motorola employee

Martin Cooper on the third. Cooper made

the call on a shoe box-sized prototype

that weighed 2 12 lb. Who did he call? A

rival employee at AT&T who was busy

working on his own prototype. Can you

hear me now? because that dunk was

deafening. The next day, we head to New

York City where the World Trade Center

opened its doors to become the world's

tallest building at the time. The Twin

Towers took the top spot from the

previous record holder, another famous

New York City landmark, the Empire State

Building. Although the World Trade

Center would only briefly hold the

record before losing the title to the

Sears Tower the following year, we were

really into the tall building race in

the 70s, Hollywood still found the time

to throw King Kong off the Twin Towers

in the 1976 remake. Apparently, that's

how they test skyscrapers in New York

City. Speaking of high art, the

massively influential avantgard painter

Pablo Picasso packed away his mortal

easel on April 8th. Picasso was a

co-founder of the cubist movement, an

abstract art style found in many of his

most famous works, including this 1937

masterpiece. The master and his wife

were in the middle of dinner with

friends when he collapsed, succumbing to

heart failure at the age of 91.

12-year-old Carolyn King took the field

as the first girl to play Little League

Baseball on May 10th, defying the

organization's long-standing rule that

disallowed girls from playing. In

response, Little League Baseball revoked

the Yipsilani American Little League's

charter, effectively banning them from

playing. King and the city of Yipsilani

filed a discrimination lawsuit, and

though the lawsuit was dismissed, Little

League Baseball eventually dropped its

boys only rule in 1975. America's first

space station, Skyab, was launched on

May 14th. Skyab was 118 ft tall and

weighed 77 tons or the equivalent of

about 40 Chevrolet Monte Carlos. Skyab

housed its first three-man crew 11 days

later when astronauts boarded the

station to make repairs and conduct

experiments for the next 28 days. Over

the next few years, the station would

house three separate crews for extended

periods of time, collecting vital

information about the sun and the

effects of living in space on the human

body. Two weeks later, city councilman

Thomas Bradley defeated incumbent Sam

Yordy to become the first black mayor of

Los Angeles on the 29th of May. A former

LAPD officer who retired from the force

to practice law, Bradley would go on to

be reelected to an unprecedented five

terms and made two unsuccessful bids to

become governor of California. Turning

the dial to music, Paul McCartney and

Wings released their only good song,

Live and Let Die, on June 1st. The song

was the theme to the James Bond film of

the same name. Although it was far from

McCartney's biggest single, Live and Let

Die nabbed an Academy Award nomination

for best song, as well as a Grammy

nomination. Not bad for a tune that

sounds like it was about his former

bandmates. Sticking with music, just two

weeks later, Kuner Marvin Gay released

his mega single, Let's Get It On. An

emotional anthem about love and doing

the dirty, the song became one of Gay's

signature hits. It remains one of

Mottown Records most successful

recordings of all time, selling 2

million copies in its first six weeks of

release alone.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> If you love almonds,

>> almonds.

>> Yeah,

>> really love almonds.

>> I do.

>> I do.

>> I do.

>> You'll love the Mars Almond Bar. You get

an almond in every bite.

>> Heading into July, millionaire heir Jean

Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Rome.

Getty's grandfather, the infamously

frugal oil tycoon J. Paul Getty Senior,

refused to pay his teenage grandson's

ransom of $17 million. He eventually

agreed to a discounted ransom of $3.2

million, but only after the kidnappers

mailed their hostages severed ear to a

Roman newspaper. But the ordeal didn't

end there. We'll find out more later

this year. On July 20th, legendary actor

and martial artist Bruce Lee passed away

at the age of 32. Lee had been in Hong

Kong to discuss his upcoming film, Game

of Death. The actor had previously been

diagnosed with cerebral edema two months

earlier after collapsing in Golden

Harvest Studios while recording some

dialogue for Enter the Dragon. The cause

of Lee's death has been the subject of

intense speculation, blaming everything

from a Gangland assassination to an evil

curse. The curse theory would gain more

momentum 30 years later when Lee's son

Brandon was fatally shot in a freak

accident while filming the action movie

The Crow. Moving into August, musician

Stevie Wonder fell into a coma after

suffering a head injury in a serious car

accident on the 6th of August. The

singer was being driven to a radio

station by his cousin to promote his

latest album when their car crashed into

the back of a flatbed truck. Wonder

remained in a coma for 4 days. He even

temporarily lost his sense of smell,

which come on universe, don't do that to

Stevie.

>> Hey, you're supposed to be the fastest

thing in the valley, man. But that can't

be your car. It must be your mama's car.

I'm sort of embarrassed to be this close

to you. Well, I'm not surprised.

>> September would start out with some sad

news as Lord of the Rings author JRR

Tolken set sail for the Undying Lands at

age 81. The Lord of the Rings has sold

more than 50 million copies to date and

has been translated into roughly 30

different languages, including The Black

Speech of Mordor, probably.

>> Bridge, this is the captain. What's

happened? Two Romulan battle cruisers,

Captain, and they're heading right for

us.

>> Elsewhere, Wonder Woman's transparent

plane carries the super friend Seawward.

>> I wish I could join you in Aquaman.

>> Thanks, Batman, but this operation is

best handled by two.

>> Sticking with sports, decorated tennis

pro Billy Jean King defeated former

champ Bobby Riggs in a much balihood

exhibition match dubbed the Battle of

the Sexes on September 20th. The

55-year-old gambler and hustler Riggs

began challenging female players earlier

in the year, goating his potential

opponents with rants like, "Women belong

in the bedroom and kitchen." In that

order, Rigs was no match for the

30-year-old number one ranked female

player, King, who woped him three games

in a row to win the match in front of

30,000 fans at the Houston Astredome and

an estimated 90 million more on

television. The 5th of October saw the

release of eccentric Ivory Ticklan

rockstar Elton John's seventh album,

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Goodbye

contained a number of hit singles,

including Candle in the Wind, Benny and

the Jets, Saturday nights All Right for

Fighting, and the title track Goodbye

Yellow Brick Road has sold over 30

million copies worldwide. The very next

day, Syrian and Egyptian forces launched

a coordinated attack on Israel with the

aim of reclaiming territory lost during

the third Arab-Israeli war in 1967.

Dubbed the Yam Kapoor War, the attack

was specifically intended to take

Israeli forces by surprise as it

occurred on the holiest day of the year

in the Jewish faith. Although the armed

conflict only lasted a few weeks with a

ceasefire going into effect on the 25th

of October, the fallout was further

reaching particularly for Israel and its

allies. Elvis and Priscilla Presley

divorced after 6 years of marriage on

October 9th. The two had begun seeing

each other when Priscilla was 14 and

Elvis was 24. Jailhouse Rock indeed.

Although the king frequently slept with

other women and Priscilla had begun an

affair with her karate instructor that

nearly resulted in Elvis hiring a hitman

to take the guy out, the split was

amicable and the two remained close for

the rest of Elvis's life. Sticking with

the world of music, country music legend

Dolly Parton released her fan favorite

single Jolene on the 15th of October,

scoring her second number one hit as a

solo artist. The song is Parton's most

recorded tune with everyone from Olivia

Newton John to the White Stripes doing

their own covers. Parton later claimed

in an interview that she wrote the

lyrics to Jolene on the same day she

penned the words to another song that

would become a massively popular cover,

I will always love you.

>> We'll be right back.

>> Magnavox presents Odyssey, the

electronic game of the future. Odyssey

easily attaches to any brand TV, black

and white or color, to create a

closedcircuit electronic playground. The

Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries, or OPEC, if you're nasty,

enacted an oil embargo on the 17th of

October. The embargo punished the United

States and several other countries for

their decision to assist Israel by

reducing its exports by 5% per month

until Israel withdrew its forces from

the contested territories. By December,

oil experts had been reduced by over

75%, leading to one of the worst energy

crises in modern history. Gas rationing

in the US saw high prices and long lines

that sometimes stretched for miles.

President Nixon asked filling stations

to refrain from selling gasoline on

Saturday nights or Sundays. In some

cases, cars would be restricted to

buying gas on odd or even numbered days,

depending on which type of number was

the last digit of their license plate.

And in the UK, people were encouraged to

only heat a single room of their homes

during the winter. On the topic of

Nixon, Tricky Dick ousted special

prosecutor Archerold Cox and accepted

the resignations of Attorney General

Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney

General William Ruckles House on October

20th. The culling became unofficially

known as the Saturday Night Massacre as

Nixon cleaned house at the Justice

Department in a desperate attempt to

conceal his involvement in the Watergate

scandal. But it didn't quite pan out for

the embattled commander-in-chief. The

public was outraged by Nixon's behavior,

and 21 members of Congress began calling

for his impeachment.

>> Hey, Fish,

who loves you, baby. You're beautiful.

>> Moving into November, beloved comedian

David Stringbean Aman and his wife

Estelle were gunned down by burglars in

their Nashville, Tennessee home on the

10th. Aman was a popular fixture at

Nashville's Grand Old Opry, as well as a

main cast member on Heihaw. The

murderers, cousins Marvin and John

Brown, had heard Aman kept large amounts

of cash on hand, so they broke into his

cabinet and waited for him to return

home, ambushing him in a stell as they

walked through the door. The Browns each

received two life sentences. And while

Marvin died in prison, John Brown would

eventually be parrolled after serving 41

years in 2014. Nixon delivered his

infamous quotes to a crowd of

journalists at Walt Disney World in

Orlando, Florida on November 17th,

saying the infamous

>> people have got to know whether or not

their president's a crook. Well, I'm not

a crook. I've earned everything I've

got.

>> Your attention, please. We will soon be

landing at Westworld, the ultimate

resort. Each resort is maintained by

reliable computer technology. Abducted

Getty heir John Paul Getty III was

finally freed by his capttors on

December 15th. The kidnappers dropped

Paul off on the side of a stretch of

road in the middle of a downpour. Getty

never fully recovered from the incident.

He developed a serious drug addiction

that resulted in a tragic overdose in

1981 which left him paralyzed and unable

to speak. He passed away at age 54 in

2011.

>> Must have left my wallet in my room.

>> Don't hand me any of that crap. You

better have the money or it's going to

be all around Chicago that you welched.

You won't be able to get a game of

Jacks.

[Music]

>> And that's how 1973 came to a close with

a sting and a hiss of pea soup. 1974 was

grooving up over the horizon, bringing

with it the end of the Watergate

scandal, the crowning of a new home run

king, and the abduction of another

wealthy teenager that would go in a

shockingly different direction. But

that's all for next year. Coming soon,

1974.

1974 was the year everything changed.

>> Personally figured I was watching

something that somebody else would never

see again in the world. Americans

learned the president wasn't untouchable

or even that trustworthy, causing a

ripple effect of disillusionment. But

the year also saw a microbus full of

classic shows, movies, and music make

their mark on pop culture history.

>> And two sports heroes made the most

dramatic statements of their careers.

We're going to talk about the news,

culture, sports, and entertainment, and

all that was weird in the 70s. This is

timeline.

Get ready for an abrupt turnover at the

White House like you've never seen

before because today we're talking 1974.

Now, strap into your rocket cycle and

get ready to jump all the president's

men. This is 1974.

The year would start off as an important

moment for Nerdom as the fantasy role-

playinging game Dungeons and Dragons

made its debut in January. Initially

developed by Dave Arnison and Gary Gyax

and published by the group's homegrown

company, Tactical Studies Rules, Dn D

borrowed heavily from miniature

wargaming and Tolken's Lord of the Rings

to become the first tabletop RPG. While

it initially frightened mothers around

the world, resulting in a brief satanic

panic and a pretty quaint movie starring

a young Tom Hanks.

>> I have spells I'm going to fly.

>> DN D has hung around like a lich in a

tomb for over 40 years, giving creative

nerds around the world a groovy new

social outlet. Decidedly ungroovy,

President Richard Nixon signed the

Emergency Highway Energy Conservation

Act on the second day of the year,

creating a national speed limit of 55

mph. The act was a response to the OPEC

oil embargo enacted the previous year,

which threw the US into one of the worst

energy crises of the 20th century. The

new lower speed limit was meant to force

American drivers to be more fuel

efficient, and it stayed on the books

until November 28th, 1995, nearly 20

years later.

>> Most people do travel over 55. Most

people that travel interstate go 60, 65,

or 70 anyway.

>> Apparently, lobbyist Sammy Hagar's work

finally paid off. Speaking of music, the

Joker by Steve Miller Band hit the top

of the Billboard Hot 100 on January

12th. The meta stoner anthem, peppered

with references to the band's earlier

songs and a hall of fame nonsense word

has sold over 5 million copies in the

US. We still don't know what the hell a

pompetus is, but we dig it.

>> Can I talk to you for a minute, FS

outside?

>> Yeah, we'll talk right here.

>> Well, it's kind of personal.

>> Oh, personal? Yeah. Hey, Vivian, go out

and find me a fallen star, will you?

back in 5 minutes.

>> I don't have a watch.

>> Hey, count one, Mississippi.

>> She's got great lips.

>> What's the worth of a man? For Steve

Austin, it's $6 million. Steve Austin is

the $6 million man, and he's worth every

penny.

>> In late January, McDonald's CEO Ray Croc

threw down a few stacks of his

McMillions to buy MLB's San Diego

Padres's. Krock, who had retired from

running the Golden Arches the previous

year, made quite the steal, purchasing

the pod for a cool $12 million,

preventing a move that would have

relocated the Padres's to Washington,

DC. Heading into the 1st of February,

21-year-old University of Washington

student Linda Anne Healey vanished from

her apartment in the early morning hours

of February 1st. Healey's remains were

discovered by forestry students on

Taylor Mountain in Soma County,

California a year later. Although nobody

knew it yet, Healey was the first

documented victim of Ted Bundy. Bundy

was not done wreaking havoc. More on him

to come later in the 70s. The next day,

pop icon Barbara Streryand scored her

first number one hit with The Way We

Were, which hit the top spot on the

Billboard Hot 100. The first EGOT

winner, that's Emmys, Grammy, Oscar, and

Tony, was already an established singer

and actress. In fact, The Way We Were

was the theme song of the 1973 film of

the same name, which starred Strand and

earned her a second Oscar nomination for

best actress. The 70s Were Good to Babs.

2 days later, 19-year-old Aerys Patty

Hurst was abducted from her apartment by

the Symbian Liberation Army on February

4th. The leftist terrorist organization

dragged Hurst, who was millionaire

publisher William Randph Hurst's

granddaughter, enter their car in a hail

of gunfire and demanded that the Hurst

family distribute millions of dollars of

food to needy people across California.

Mr. Hurst wants to save his daughter.

Each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for

four successive weeks, each person with

one of the listed cards can go to

publicized stores and pick up their

food.

>> The family attempted to comply, but the

kidnappers didn't release Patty.

Something much more unexpected happened.

2 months after her abduction, a

surveillance camera caught Hurst helping

the SLA rob a bank in San Francisco. She

then released a statement declaring that

she had willingly joined the

organization.

>> I have been given the choice of one,

being released in a safe area or two,

joining the forces of the Cybian

Liberation Army. I have chosen to stay

and fight.

>> This cliffhanger plot twist will finish

playing out next year.

We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> You are about to witness the most

amazing man-made jewelry ever created.

The original multicolor mood ring. This

is the ring that senses your deepest

feelings. Scientifically developed, the

incredible chromosone senses thermal

changes deep within your body. Reflects

all your mood changes in a fascinating

kaleidoscope of color. Discover the

mysterious powers of the multiolor mood

ring in elegant gold or silver tone

settings. Dare to wear the original

multiolor mood ring with the fascinating

chroma stone. Only $5 while supplies

last.

>> Boy, is he strict.

>> Got to get in there clothes and find out

what's happening. There's our ticket.

>> Hey boys,

look what I got here.

Hey, where are the white women at?

To be a TV star, you got to be a real

natural. My husband James used to have

slow blood.

>> Thanks to Vitbrite Health Tonic, my

blood is fast, fast, fast. Vital

Brightite is dino might.

>> Jaws made a bodacious splash in the

world of shark fiction on the 10th. The

best-selling thriller written by

firsttime novelist Peter Benshley caused

a feeding frenzy among Hollywood

executives. The film rights to the story

were sold before it even hit bookstores.

Producers at Universal Studios hired an

upand- cominging filmmaker named Steven

Spielberg to direct the movie version.

We'll see if that film did anything next

year. Speaking of buzz, Army Private

Robert K. Preston buzzed the White House

in a stolen helicopter on February 17th.

The 20-year-old soldier led police

helicopters on a chase through the

National Mall before the Secret Service

opened fire on him, forcing him to land

on the White House's South Lawn with

minor injuries.

>> Intentions was to uh fly the aircraft

directly into the White House.

>> Preston later claimed that he had joined

the army hoping to become a helicopter

pilot and was upset that he'd been made

a mechanic instead. Well, that's one way

to show them what you got. Preston

ultimately served two months in prison

and was dishonorably discharged. Bummer.

Speaking of broken dreams, Sher split

from Sunny Bono on the 20th, ending the

musical power couple after more than a

decade in the spotlight. As a duo, Sunny

and Sher released their number one hit,

I Got You, Babe, and hosted a popular

variety show featuring their playful

bickering.

>> Folks, I could have sang in any one of

those musicals really, because I Yeah, I

know one you would have been great for,

The Wizard of Oz.

>> Apparently, that bickering wasn't all

that playful. The two were already

living in separate homes by the show's

third season and were officially

divorced one year later. Jumping ahead

to late March, a group of Chinese

farmers digging a well just outside of

Shian discovered an underground chamber

containing 6,000 life-sized Terracotta

warriors. On the 29th, the famous

Terracotta army was revealed to be

guarding the tomb of the first emperor

of the Sheen dynasty, who ruled back in

221 B.CE. The site turned out to be a

sprawling 20-mile complex containing a

palace, a burial pyramid, offices, and

two other pits containing even more

terracotta warriors. Far out. Heading

into April, Swedish pop group ABBA won

the Eurovvision Song Contest on the 6th

with their song Waterlue. It was the

first Eurovision victory in Sweden's

history, and it turned out to be the

breakthrough moment the band was looking

for. Waterlue became an international

hit and made ABBA superstars and the

group remains one of the most popular

and bestselling acts of all time.

Speaking of alltime moments, we turn to

sports as Hammer and Hank Aaron broke

Babe Ruth's career home run record two

days later.

>> What a marvelous moment for the country

and the world. A black man is getting a

standing ovation in the deep south for

breaking a record of an all-time

baseball idol. In the fourth inning

against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the

Braves star right fielder spanked his

715th dinger at Atlanta's Fulton County

Stadium. Aaron finished his baseball

career with a staggering 755 homers, a

record that stood for just over 31 years

until San Francisco Giant slugger Barry

Bonds broke it in August of 2007. But,

you know, juicing. Three months after

abducting Patty Hurst, the Symbion

Liberation Army engaged the LAPD in one

of the largest police shootouts in

history on May 17th.

Come out now.

>> 500 Los Angeles officers raided an SLA

safe house in Compton, resulting in an

explosive exchange during which more

than 9,000 rounds were fired. Police

accidentally set fire to the house

during the gunfight, which burned to the

ground as all six SLA members inside

perished. Near the end of May, legendary

jazz pianist and composer Duke Ellington

passed away. Ellington, who had just

turned 75 the previous month, is one of

the biggest figures in jazz music

history. He popularized big band jazz

music as a regular fixture at Harlem's

Cotton Club. and as a sought-after band

leader and a songwriter for over 50

years. Heading into June, arguably the

most illconceived promotion in sports

history went down on the 4th, otherwise

known as 10 cent beer night. The

Cleveland Indians lured fans to a game

against the Houston Astros by offering

as much beer as they could drink for

just a dime a pop. Fans became so drunk

and unruly that an actual riot broke out

in the ninth inning with people rushing

out onto the field to attack the players

with makeshift weapons. It's pretty poor

timing for a beer night to start with

after the incident in Dallas where the

two teams uh fought led to a very

unpleasant situation.

>> The Indians were forced to forfeit the

game and a firm four drink limit was

placed on the remaining 10-cent beer

nights Cleveland had already scheduled.

In midJune, Washington Post reporters

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

published their explosive non-fiction

bestseller, All the President's Men. The

book was a detailed collection of the

duo's ongoing investigation of the

Watergate scandal, including Woodward's

meetings with the mysterious [ __ ]

an inside source who provided the

journalists with vital information.

[ __ ] was later revealed to be FBI

associate director Mark Felt, although

Woodward and Bernstein kept his identity

a secret until Felt revealed it himself

in 2005 at the age of 91.

>> We'll be right back.

By reaching out to see things

differently, man's genius is now helping

to free him from his earthly home. The

amazing electronic devices like this one

designed for quazar color TV. It's part

of our continuing improvement in 100%

solid state design where solid state

devices contribute to your confidence in

the set you buy. Reach out for

[Music]

>> the first universal product code or UPC

code was scanned on June 26th in Troy,

Ohio to sell a pack of Wrigley's chewing

gum. The now ubiquitous codes were

designed by two Drexel University

graduate students to create a streamline

system for grocery stores to price and

track their inventory because people

used to have to do all that by hand.

Speaking of bold ideas, General Austo

Pinocha declared himself Supreme Chief

Chile the next day after seizing power

from President Salvador Alende in a

military coup the previous year.

Initially, Pinocha was meant to share

power with other members of the Huna,

but he quickly decided that it was best

for everyone if he ran the whole thing.

Pinoa remained dictator of Chile until

he was actually voted out of power and

democracy was restored on March 11th,

1990. Binocha stuck around as the

commander-in-chief of Chile's armed

forces until 1998 when he was finally

arrested for crimes against humanity.

But a wall of international red tape and

his failing health kept him out of

prison until he passed away in 2006

before he could stand trial. 3 weeks

later, former Beatle John Lennon was

ordered to vacate the United States in

60 days on the 18th of Hey July. Yeah.

Yeah. We know he didn't write that song,

but he should have. Come on. It's about

his son. The deportation stemmed from a

1968 marijuana charge the songwriter had

received in the UK. Lennon's strong

anti-war stance, coupled with his

popularity among young Americans, made

him a target of the Nixon

administration, who believed he posed a

serious threat to Nixon's re-election.

But the Walrus wouldn't have to sweat

Tricky Dick much longer. More on that

after a quick word from Charles Bronson

and the professor.

>> This is the story of a man who decided

to clean up the most violent town in the

world. Never make a death wish because a

death wish always comes true.

>> In a story forced upon us by our

producer Neil Per officially joined the

band Rush in late July. Per hopped on

the Canadian Power Rock Trio after

original drummer left the band due to a

lifelong illness. The professor would

stay with the band for over 40 years.

Not a bad run. Moving into August,

Richard Milhouse Nixon made history on

the 8th when he announced to the

American people his intention to resign

from the office of the presidency the

next day.

>> I shall resign the presidency effective

at noon tomorrow.

>> Nixon had finally turned over his tapes

of recorded conversations in the Oval

Office to the Justice Department 3 days

earlier, the content of which undeniably

incriminated him as a co-conspirator in

the Watergate break-in and subsequent

coverup. Spiro Agnu, Nixon's vice

president, had resigned a year earlier

in disgrace while pleading no contest to

an unrelated charge of tax evasion.

Gerald Ford was sworn in moments after

Nixon's resignation and gave the former

president a blanket pardon for any

crimes committed while in office. 8 days

later, punk godfathers, the Ramones,

made their concert debut at New York

City's CBGB on the 16th. Often credited

with being the first punk rock band, the

group churned out classics like Blitz

Creek Bop and I Want to Be Sedated over

a two decade career of non-stop touring

and recording. They're considered one of

the most influential artists of the past

50 years, which is pretty groovy for a

band that never had much commercial

success. Hero pilot Charles Lindberg

took his final flight on August 26th,

passing into the clouds at age 72. Lucky

Lindy made history in his small

monoplane, the Spirit of St. Lewis when

he became the first person to complete a

solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean on

May 21st, 1927. He made history a second

time under much more tragic

circumstances when his young son was

abducted from his home on March 1st,

1932 and found dead several months

later. The kidnapping and subsequent

slaying of Charles Jr. became known as

the crime of the century. Staying with

aviation news as we move into September.

The SR71 Blackbird flew from New York

City to London in under two hours on the

1st of September, setting the speed

record for transatlantic travel that

stands to this day. The Lockheed Jet,

piloted by Air Force majors James

Sullivan and Null Whitfield completed

its journey in 1 hour and 45 minutes,

touching down in London in less time

than it takes to watch a Grateful Dead

concert.

>> Wow. Where does it go? Come on, let's go

down and see. The time doorway cannot be

used for anything until this paradox is

resolved.

>> But that means we'll be killed.

>> You have a fine grasp of the obvious.

Legendary daredevil and every7s boy hero

evil conval attempted to jump a rocket

powered motorcycle over Idaho's Snake

River Canyon on September 8th. The stunt

was actually a compromise. Conneal had

originally intended to jump the Grand

Canyon, but the man told him absolutely

not. Suits, they always harsh everyone's

groove. Unfortunately, a parachute

deployed too early, cutting the jump

short in less than spectacular fashion.

>> When I punched that fire button and that

thing hit and all I saw was blue sky,

but then I lost all perspective. I may

have blacked out. I don't know.

>> Luckily and for once, Geneva walked away

with relatively minor injury.

>> It's all right. Everything's all right.

What?

There were two raccoons.

The one that killed the chickens. It's

Jasper out there now. He set up and

begged. It was the prettiest site I ever

saw.

>> Why don't you guys go back to

Disneyland? Leave me alone. Huh?

>> Well, I hope nobody forgot the peanut

butter sandwiches. If Agent Slater lays

a hand on me, I'm going to close it up

like a cherry stone. You're going to be

talking to my lawyer who's doing your

material. It's really monotonous.

>> The month of October would begin with a

landmark horror film.

>> What happened was true, just as

terrifying as being there. The Texas

Chainsaw Massacre. After you stop

screaming, you'll start talking about

it.

>> TV lost one of its most influential

figures on October 13th when popular

variety show host Ed Sullivan passed

away at age 73. Sullivan's aonomous

weekly program, The Ed Sullivan Show,

had ended just 3 years earlier in 1971.

That's one way to enjoy retirement.

>> We'll be right back.

>> You can go to day or night. The food is

good, the price is right. You can eat

dinner anytime

>> and you can dine for $1.99 at Samos. Now

till May 11th, our dinner special is

Sambo's all beef chopped steak, chili

and beans, soup or salad, dinner bread,

beverage, and dessert.

[Music]

>> The United States Air Force got into the

Halloween spirit by launching one of the

most frightening weapons in history on

October 25th. An ICBM or

intercontinental ballistic missile was

successfully dropped from a plane for

the first time as part of America's

strategy to develop more mobile methods

of delivering nuclear payloads.

Previously, ICBMs had to be launched

from stationary underground silos or

from nuclear submarines. The test did

not help escalating cold war tensions. 5

days later, Muhammad Ali defeated George

Foreman during the legendary Rumble in

the Jungle bout in Kenshasa Zire to

become the world heavyweight champion

for a second time. Ali let Foreman wear

himself out using his famous rope

technique for the first seven rounds

before striking with a flurry of his own

to KO the reigning champ in the final

seconds of round eight. The rumble in

the jungle remains one of the most

celebrated fights in boxing history. We

next go to space where the first message

from Earth was transmitted into the

stars on November 16th. Known as the

Arosibo message because it was sent from

the Araibo radio telescope in Puerto

Rico. The transmission contained

formulas and equations describing DNA as

well as some figures about the planet's

population and a return address should

any aliens ever want to come visit. The

message was meant more as a

demonstration of human ingenuity and

technology rather than an earnest

attempt to contact aliens. even though

Carl Sean did help create it. 5 days

later, Congress overrode Gerald Ford's

presidential veto to expand the Freedom

of Information Act and strengthen the

Privacy Act of 1974. Both measures were

a direct response to the Watergate

scandal, designed to make the government

more transparent and accountable and to

limit the government's ability to

surveil its own people. According to

documents declassified in 2004, Ford was

encouraged to try to slap the bill down

by Donald Rumsfield and Dick Cheney.

Speaking of old people, the most

complete skeleton of an early human

ancestor yet discovered was found in

Ethiopia 3 days later. The fossilized

skeleton of Australopythecus apherences

was uncovered by a team of scientists

led by American paleoanthropologist

Donald Johansson and French geologist

Maurice Taib and was nicknamed Lucy

after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky

with Diamonds. December saw the end of

one beloved TV show and the continuation

of two major franchises.

>> I don't know. Mr. Worth just told me to

come in here and say that there was

trouble at the mill. That's all. I

didn't expect a kind of Spanish

Inquisition.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

>> What's going on? What the hell you doing

now, boy? You're not thinking. I sure

am, boy.

Out of Evil Conval.

[Music]

>> There's a plane waiting for us to take

us to Miami in an hour. We'll make a big

thing about it.

I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my

heart.

>> You broke my heart.

>> Little known guitarist Lindseay

Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks

closed out the year by joining the rock

group Fleetwood Mack on December 31st.

The duo had recorded an album the

previous year under the name Buckingham

Nicks. Although Fleetwood Mack had

previously enjoyed some success, the

addition of Buckingham and Knicks would

jettison them to global superstardom.

But we'll hear more about that in a

future episode. And so 1974 came to a

close with the future looking bright for

America, a rock group, and an

Oscar-winning film series. 1975 was

stretching its bell-bottomed legs just

over the horizon, ready to boogie into

view with a really big fish, the fall of

Saigon, and the founding of a small

computer company called Microsoft. But

that is all for next year. Coming soon,

1975,

1975.

This is where the plot thickens. While

the previous two years had seen the end

of a war and given a crooked commander

and chief of the boot, the midpoint of

the 1970s presented an uncertain future.

A few governments changed hands. The US

and the UK experienced historic

tragedies, and some people really had it

in for Gerald Ford. But 1975 had some

pretty thrilling high points. Two iconic

gladiators faced off for the final time.

America's favorite stunt man bounced

back from a brush with death to

accomplish the impossible. And the

summer blockbuster was created by a

rubber shark and two notes on a piano.

We're going to talk about the news,

culture, sports, and entertainment, and

all that was weird in the 70s. This is

Timeline.

[Music]

Get ready to take the Pepsi challenge

because this episode is all about 1975.

Now, you're going to need a bigger boat

for this one. This is 1975.

The year kicked off with a crowd of over

2,000 Led Zeppelin fans getting the let

out at Boston Gardens where a riot broke

out in the early morning hours of

January 6th. The throng of lead heads

had gathered the night before to try to

score some tickets to an upcoming

Zeppelin concert the moment they went on

sale. But the crowd became agitated and

broke into the arena around midnight and

trashed the place. The mob was calmed

when the decision was made to open the

box office and begin slinging Zeppelin

tickets. But by then, the damage had

been done. $50,000 worth to be exact.

That's enough to buy several stairways

to heaven.

>> Let's take a look at our wheel of

fortune. Top dollar value on the wheel.

The first round's $500. Look out for

this black space bankrupt cuz if you hit

it, you lose all your cash. But not your

merchandise. Because once you buy a

prize, it's yours to keep forever.

>> Yeah, they must be real rich.

>> Hold it, Diane. We are the Jeffersons.

Hey, you're right, Louise. He's a great

joker.

>> Hey, Barn. I think he's stoned.

>> Stone? What are you talking about?

>> Hey, what do you say we guys go down to

the beach and shoot some clams?

>> Comedy legend Larry Fine, better known

as Larry of the Three Stooges, departed

for the slapstick stage in the sky on

the 24th. Fine wouldn't be the only

stoogge we'd lose in 75. More on that

later in the year. A Hungarian-born

college professor named Erno Rubik

applied for a patent for his magic cube

on January 30th. Originally designed as

an exercise for his interior design

students, Rubik's three-dimensional

puzzle would become one of the most

popular brain teasers in pop culture

history, the Rubik's Cube. Hey88s.

March saw some major geopolitical

shakeups. The military government of

Ethiopia abolished its monarchy on the

21st, beginning a 17-year period of

Marxist rule. The Durg, the Huta that

had seized control of Ethiopia in a coup

the previous September, was an ally of

the Soviet Union and would lead the East

African country into an extreme famine

in the 1980s, brought on by historic

droughts in war with Somalia. 4 days

later, King Fisel of Saudi Arabia was

abolished from the planet by his nephew,

Prince Fisel bin Mused, whose motives

remain unknown to this day. The king was

fatally shot during a royal audience

with the prince, who had just returned

from a visit to the United States. And

although he was initially declared

insane, the prince was convicted of

reicide and publicly executed 3 months

later.

>> He's a pinball wizard that has to be

addressed. A pen with a gangster.

>> Once in a lifetime, there comes a motion

picture which changes the whole history

of motion pictures. Amusement park

caricature sprung to life. Bill Gates

made the first steps toward becoming a

gazillionaire when he founded Microsoft

with Paul Allen on April 4th in

Albuquerque, New Mexico. Oddly,

Albuquerque might have ceased to exist

were it not for the spellch check

feature in Microsoft Office. At the

time, Gates, a student at Harvard

University, and Allen, a computer

programmer from Boston, intended to

produce software for the Altar 8800

personal computer. But the company grew

way beyond those modest goals. Flash

forward 12 years later to 1987, when the

31-year-old Gates became the world's

youngest billionaire after Microsoft

went public in 1985. Uh, if they could

only make an internet browser that

works. Back to 75, where on April 8th,

Frank Robinson took the field as Major

League Baseball's first black manager

during a game against the New York

Yankees. Robinson also played in that

game, hitting a home run on his first

atbat in Cleveland's 5 to3 victory.

Pretty groovy day for Robinson.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> Now you can play the evil conval stunt

game right at home. There are six

exciting evil conval stunts like stop

evil cycle before it hits the barrels.

Make evil stop on the ramp. Not that

time.

>> Sticking with baseball, the San Diego

chicken made his first appearance at a

Padres's game the next day. The chicken

portrayed by Ted Yanolas was initially

conceived as a mascot for the local

radio station. But Yanolas began

attending Padres's games in the costume

and turned the character into a sports

icon. Although he slowed down some in

recent years, the San Diego Chicken

still makes public appearances to this

day. Ironically, the chicken made his

debut the same day former McDonald's CEO

and then Padres's owner Ray Croc

infamously took control of the

broadcasting booth in the middle of the

game and began ranting to fans about his

team's poor performance. Just over a

week later, the illiterative dictator

Paul Pot took control of Cambodia when

his Chimera Rouge guerrilla army seized

the capital city of Pinam Pen, bringing

an end to the Cambodian civil war. On

April 17th, Paul Pod instituted one of

the most notoriously cruel regimes in

modern history, outlawing virtually all

forms of expression, taking children

from their families and conscripting

them into military service and

sentencing any citizens he deemed

undesirable to work camps and prisons

where they were fatally starved and

tortured. Paul Pot would remain in power

until he was deposed and imprisoned by

his own followers on June 12th, 1997.

Paul Pot spent the rest of his life

under house arrest and succumbed to

heart failure a year later. The West

German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, was

bombed by the left-wing Red Army faction

on the 25th of April. The guerillas

seized control of the embassy to demand

the release of some two dozen anarchist

prisoners. But the situation quickly

escalated, resulting in the demise of

two hostages and one of the captives.

One of the more unforgettable images of

the 20th century was captured 4 days

later during the fall of Saigon. The

city of Saigon was renamed today. The

victorious communists who forced the

city surrender said the capital of South

Vietnam henceforth will be known as Ho

Chi Min City.

>> The United States officially ended its

occupation of South Vietnam on April

29th, closing the US embassy for the

final time and evacuating all remaining

American personnel via helicopter. But

South Vietnamese citizens, desperate to

escape before the North Vietnamese army

took control, began flooding the

compound to try and board the

helicopters. Ultimately, a total of 81

helicopters evacuated 1,373

Americans and 5,595

Vietnamese over the course of 19 hours.

An additional 65,000 South Vietnamese

citizens fled the city in boats, barges,

rafts, and sand pans to reach the US

warships floating just off the coast.

Moving into the summer, Mo Howard, the

last living member of the Three Stooges

and the comedy trio's de facto leader,

yucked his last yuck on May the 4th. Oh,

and on Star Wars day, too. Bummer. At

least it wasn't a thing at that point.

Or now, really, it's not an actual

event, you guys. It's a self-generated

marketing event. 6 days later, Sony

unveiled its new Betamax recorder in

Japan. Beta was the first home video

format, allowing consumers to record

broadcast or watch prepackaged movies in

their own living rooms. It hit the

stores in the United States that

November, but the excitement of her

Betamax would be short-lived as it was

quickly overshadowed by the debut of the

VHS format the following year. The next

day, R&B singer Natalie Cole released

her debut album, Inseparable. Cole

already had bonafides as a kuner. She

was the daughter of legendary vocalist

Nat King Cole, but the release of

Inseparable made her a star in her own

right, selling over 1 million copies and

earning her two Grammy awards. Speaking

of hits, Glenn Campbell released his hit

single Rhinestone Cowboy two weeks later

on May 26th. Rhinestone hit the top spot

on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot

Country Songs chart, the first country

song to do so since Jimmy Dean's 1961

hit Big Bad John. I'm a rhinestone

cowboy. M

and now it's stuck in your head. You're

welcome. That same day, Evil Conval, the

most famous daredevil to have ever

lived, had a brush with death when he

got into a frightening crash while

performing a stunt in London's Wembley

Stadium. Conneval was attempting to jump

13 buses on his motorcycle when he wiped

out, breaking his hand and fracturing

two vertebrae and his pelvis. Pelvis?

Yeah, you can break that. The crash left

him so shaken that he told the audience

he would never attempt another jump.

>> That you

are the last people in the world who

will ever see me jump because I will

never ever ever jump again. I'm through.

>> But he changed his mind pretty quickly.

More on that later in the year. One day

later, the UK suffered its worst motor

vehicle disaster in history when a bus

loaded with passengers fell off the

Dibbles Bridge. The bus landed upside

down and was nearly flattened by the

plunge, which fatally injured 33 people

on board. Another motor vehicle tragedy

struck 3 days later when American

Olympic long-distance runner Steve

Prefontaine drove his car off the road

near his house in Eugene, Oregon in the

early morning hours of May 30th.

Prefontaine was just 24 years old at the

time of his fatal accident and had been

training to compete in the 1976

Olympics.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

mermaid you see. What's the best tuna

chicken of the sea?

>> June kicked off with a more peaceful

development when Egyptian President

Anoir Sadat reopened the Suez Canal on

the 5th of the month. The canal, an

important shipping lane between the

Persian Gulf and Europe, had been closed

8 years earlier in 1967 during the 6-day

war in response to Israel's occupation

of the Sinai Peninsula. Today, roughly

300 million tons of goods travel through

the Suez Canal each year. That is a lot

of eight tracks.

>> Anyway,

>> I'm going to get you some lemonade. Oh,

you're fine, darling. Fine. It's the

microphone. Give me

>> I ain't done.

>> I know. I know.

>> I ain't done.

>> Go get some glass of water. Come on,

boys. Help her off. All right. You'll

come back. Okay, darling.

>> Thank you.

>> Notorious mob boss Sam Gianana was

whacked in his home on June 19th. The

hit took place the night before Gian

Kana was set to testify before Congress

about the mafia's involvement with the

CIA in plans to assassinate Fidel

Castro. To this day, Gian Kana's murder

remains unsolved.

>> I don't want no volunteers. I don't want

no mates. There's too many captains on

this island.

$10,000 for me by myself. For that, you

get the head, the tail, the whole damn

thing. Theatrical shock rock singer

Alice Cooper took a tumble off the stage

during a concert in Vancouver on the

23rd of June. Cooper, known for his

elaborate performances, tripped over a

prop during the first song of the night

and crashed head first through the

security barriers on the floor below,

breaking six of his ribs and nabbing a

pretty gnarly concussion. After being

told the extent of his injuries, the

singer went back out and performed a few

more songs, presumably far, far away

from the edge of the stage. A much more

tragic crash occurred a day later when

Eastern Airlines Flight 66 crashed on

approach to New York's JFK airport on

June 24th. The aircraft was thrown off

course by strong winds and struck

several light towers before impacting on

Rockaway Boulevard. 113 of the 124

people on board perished, making it the

worst accident in American aviation

history at the time. Twilight Zone

creator Rod Serling departed for a

dimension not only of sight and sound,

but of mind on the 28th of June.

Serling's endlessly imitable persona and

incisive social commentary made the

Twilight Zone a hit, and it remains the

benchmark for popular science fiction to

this day. That unforgettably trippy

theme song doesn't hurt either. Moving

into July, tennis icon Arthur Ash became

the first black player to win Wimbledon

the day after Independence Day. The

31-year-old Ash triumped over the

heavily favored Jimmy Connors, who is

both the defending champion and nine

years Ash's junior. Ash would retire

from competition 5 years later after

suffering a heart attack and became an

HIV and AIDS activist after contracting

the virus from a blood transfusion

following bypass surgery. Ash passed

away in 1993. Famed labor leader Jimmy

Hawa disappeared off the face of the

earth on July 20th from the parking lot

of a diner in Detroit, Michigan. Bafa

had been the president of the Teamsters

Union since 1957 and had become a hugely

influential figure in the American labor

movement, advocating for workers rights

right up until the day of his

disappearance. He also had well-known

ties with organized crime, which

resulted in him spending several years

in prison for bribery. Although Hafa's

fate remains officially unsolved, it

hasn't stopped Hollywood from making a

bunch of movies about his demise.

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani

founded his aonomous company in Milan,

Italy 4 days later with his partner

Sergio Galotei. Fashion House has since

become synonymous with trends setting

red carpet fashion and is still

generating billions of dollars of annual

revenue almost 50 years later. Near the

end of July, Gerald Ford became the

first US president to visit Avitz. Ford

solemnly paid his respects at the

memorial to the 4 million victims of the

notorious concentration camp in Poland.

While on his way to a multi-nation peace

conference in Helsinki, Finland, Led

Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant was

seriously injured in a car crash in

Roads, Greece on the 4th of August. The

singer had been vacationing with his

family while on a short break from

touring when he lost control of their

rental car and drove off the road.

Although his family wasn't seriously

injured, Plant suffered a broken elbow

and ankle, forcing Led Zeppelin to

cancel the rest of their tour and

pushing back the release date of their

next album by a full year. Zeppelin,

good times, bad times. You know they've

had their share.

>> For tonight is the night that my

beautiful creature is destined to be

born.

Gerald Ford endured the first of two

attempts on his life when former Charles

Manson follower Lynette Squeaky from

tried to gun the president down on

September 5th. Ford was walking into the

state capital building in Sacramento,

California, when From emerged from the

crowd, brandishing a pistol, but she had

neglected to chamber around, so

whoopsies. Squeaky was squashed to the

ground by Secret Service agents as Ford

continued inside the building and met

with California Governor Jerry Brown as

if nothing had happened. Maybe you

didn't notice. Nah, you definitely

noticed that. The next day, 18-year-old

tennis star Martina Navertolova asked

for political asylum from communist

controlled Czechoslovakia while

competing in the US Open on September

6th. Naturalva had been granted

permission to stay in America for the

duration of the tournament, but

officially defected from her home

country the night after she was

eliminated from the semi-finals. The

hot-tempered tennis pro was one of

several prominent athletes, artists,

entertainers, and others to publicly

defect from communist controlled

countries during the Cold War, including

gymnast Nadia Kumanichi and Detroit

Redwing legend Sergey Federov. Now,

first thing you got to do is Vinnie

Barbarino look. Okay, your hair, for

instance, very casual. It should look

like it's being blown by unseen winds.

Just over a week later, Rembrandt's

priceless painting, The Night Watch, was

badly damaged by a knife wielding

vandal, as it hung in the Reichkes

Museum in Amsterdam. Oh, and we mean

priceless. Literally. The massive 12x4

ft painting has never been assigned a

monetary value. The attacker was a

former teacher named Vermes, who slashed

the paintings to ribbons with a bread

knife, claiming the Lord had told him to

do it. Interestingly, this wasn't the

first time that the Night Watch would be

randomly attacked by vandals in the 20th

century, nor would it be the last. An

unemployed shoemaker attempted to deface

the painting with a shoemaker's knife in

1911. And we flash forward to April 6th,

1990. A man sprayed acid onto the canvas

from a pump concealed in his jacket.

Luckily, the damage was minimal. Some

people really do not like that painting.

Coming back to 1975, kidnapping victim

turned wanted fugitive Patty Hurst was

captured by the FBI in San Francisco on

September 18th. Hurst, the granddaughter

of publishing magnate William Randph

Hurst, had been abducted by the Symbian

Liberation Army the previous year, who

demanded an elaborate ransom for her

return. But Hurst appeared to have

joined the SLA, releasing a videotaped

statement of allegiance and assisting

the group in at least two armed

robberies. Although she later claimed

that she had been brainwashed and

tormented by her capttors, Hurst was

convicted for her involvement in the

robberies and spent three years in

prison before her sentence was commuted

by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

[Laughter]

>> Can we help you?

>> Oh, you speak English?

>> Of course.

>> Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. 17 days after

Squeaky from botched attack, President

Ford survived a second attempt on his

life when a woman opened fire on him

from a crowd gathered outside his hotel

in San Francisco. The asalent was a

former FBI informant named Sarah Jane

Moore, who squeezed off two rounds

before being subdued by Oliver Sipple, a

retired US Marine who happened to be

standing near her in the crowd.

President Ford escaped unharmed until

his scathing depiction on the Simpsons

two decades later. Electrifying soul

singer Jackie Wilson suffered a massive

heart attack in the middle of a

performance the following week. Wilson

was in the middle of a rendition of his

hit song Lonely Teardrops at a New

Jersey nightclub on September 29th when

he suddenly collapsed. The singer lapsed

into a 9-year coma from which he never

awakened. Wilson passed away on January

21st, 1984 at the age of 49. Moving into

October and the checking in on sports,

Muhammad Ali narrowly defeated rival Joe

Frasier in a legendary boxing match.

Dubbed the thriller in Manila by Ali

himself, the champ traded blows with

Frraasier for a brutal 14 rounds in

Quesan City in the Philippines.

Frraasier's face was so swollen he could

barely see and his corner threw in the

towel. It was the third and last time

these two greats would face each other

in the rain. Ali taking two of those

bouts.

We'll be right back.

>> No pizza lover is going to buy frozen

pizza just because it's convenient.

That's why Kellogg made their frozen

pizza with thick, rich tomato sauce,

fresh peppers and mushrooms, spicy

pepperoni, and lots of mozzarella

cheese.

>> A week later, President Ford signed a

bill authorizing the admission of women

to America's militarymies. Previously,

the nation's servicemies had been male

only. The bill generated some

controversy though as women were barred

from combat at the time. In fact, women

were still prohibited from most combat

roles until January of 2013 when

Pentagon Defense Secretary Leon Petta

officially lifted the ban. Women would

still be restricted from joining special

operations units such as Navy Seals and

the Army Special Forces until 2015.

>> From Saturday Night News headquarters,

this is Weekend Update with Chvy Chase.

>> You under the covers right now?

Did you shower?

>> Good. Good evening. I'm Chvby Chase.

>> Stunt man Evil Conval did not stay

retired for long. Just 5 months after

his crash at Wembley Stadium, the

legendary daredevil jumped 14 Greyhound

buses at Ohio's King Island Amusement

Park, a distance of over 130 ft. And

this time, he stuck the landing. It's

just too bad he couldn't ride the beast

after his jump. The greatest wooden

coaster wouldn't debut for another four

years.

>> From New York,

Hollywood,

the nation,

Washington, and the world.

Good morning, America.

>> Punk band, The Sex Pistols played their

first show on the 6th at the Common Room

of London's St. Martin School of Art.

True to their street punk image, the

band neglected to bring any equipment

and had to borrow amplifiers from the

headlining band Bazooka Joe. The show

nearly ended in a fist fight when

Pistol's lead singer Johnny Rotten

started smashing the lone gear, which to

be honest is exactly what you'd expect

from a guy named Johnny Rotten. There's

a reason he was on Judge Judy in the

'90s.

>> Dr. Blinker, I always wondered when I'd

have the displeasure of meeting you.

>> She knows who we are. Oh, I've heard of

you, but you should have stuck to

sabotaging oil tankers.

>> Jesus. I mean, you guys do nothing but

complain about how you can't stand it in

this place here, and then you haven't

got the guts just to walk out. I mean,

what do you think you are, for Christ's

sake? Crazy or something? Well, you're

not. Hawaii's Kilawea volcano erupted on

November 29th, triggering a massive

earthquake that measured a whopping 7.4

on the Richter scale. In addition to the

eruption, the earthquake conjured a 47

foot high tsunami that was felt as far

away as Alaska and Japan. The surf was

up indeed. Speaking of bombs, an

explosive device detonated in a baggage

area of LaGuardia Airport one day later.

The blast tore through the crowded

terminal, fatally wounding 11 people and

injuring 75 others. Despite being one of

the worst terrorist attacks in American

history at the time, no group took

credit for the bombing, and the incident

remains unsolved to this day. And so

1975 ended on a bittersweet note with an

unforgettable moment of triumph and a

shocking and mysterious tragedy. 1976

was just about to roll up to the party,

bringing with it a new president, a new

gadget, and hey, the Muppets. But that

is next year, coming soon. 1976

1976 began to lay the groundwork for its

upcoming sequel, the 1980s.

America celebrated its 200th year as

several prominent figures from the first

half of the 20th century faded into the

sunset to make room for the next

generation of trend setting icons and

world leaders. After the uncertainty of

the previous year, 1976 brought with it

some welcome promises of hope for the

future, including an exciting new space

program and the election of a folksy new

president, untouched by the stain of

Watergate. But it wasn't all floral

prints and disco. Unrest and injustice

were still rampant around the globe, and

the streets of New York City would be

darkened by the arrival of one of

history's most notorious criminals.

We're going to talk about the news,

culture, sports, and entertainment, and

all that was weird in the 70s. This is

Timeline.

You talking to me? You must be talking

to me because this episode is all about

1976.

Now, don't get too close to that Pinto

because this is 1976.

The year kicked off with the moving of a

national monument. The Liberty Bell was

relocated from Philadelphia's

Independence Hall to a newly constructed

pavilion a short distance away in

Independence National Historic Park on

January 1st in celebration of America's

bsentennial. Bit of a sad gift. Nobody

wants to reorganize their antiques on

their 200th birthday. The Liberty Bell

has remained in its new home ever since.

Famed mystery writer Agatha Christie

passed away on the 12th of January. And

the murderer is someone in this room.

Just kidding. Christy passed away of

natural causes at her home, Winterbrook

House at the age of 85. She is often

referred to as the most influential

mystery writer to ever put pen to paper

and remains one of the bestselling

authors of all time.

>> Hi, I'm Darling. And I'm Marie.

>> I understand.

>> Even the way I did it was difficult.

Sure.

>> Well, look, man. It's not easy working

with a dummy.

>> The doomed supersonic airliner Concord

took its first commercial flight on

January the 21st. Two flights departed

simultaneously from London's Heathro

airport and France's Orley airport,

bound for Bahrain and Rio de Janeiro,

respectively. Although the high-speed

plane could carry passengers across the

Atlantic in less than half the time, the

Concord never managed to catch on. Only

16 of the planes were sold and were used

exclusively to fly from London and Paris

to New York until July 20th, 2000 when

an Air France Concord crashed shortly

after takeoff, claiming the lives of

over 100 passengers and crew.

>> You could hear the aircraft, you could

see the black smoke, and you could see

tremendous flames coming out the back.

>> The Concord never recovered and took its

final commercial flight just over 3

years later on October 24th, 2003.

Well, we got to get out of here.

>> Well, what do you suggest I do? Flap my

arms real hard and head toward the

window?

>> Finishing out the month, future Dana

Carvey impersonation, George HW Bush

became the director of the CIA on the

30th.

>> Anybody dumb enough to accept the job is

too dumb to do it. Bush had previously

served two terms in the House of

Representatives and was a UN ambassador

under Richard Nixon, but he wouldn't

hang on to the CIA gig for long. Bush

resigned from the position exactly one

year later following the election of

President Jimmy Carter. Gez, George, let

us know how you really feel.

Moving into February, Nobel Prizewinning

physicist Verer Heisenberg passed into

the theoretical plane on the first.

Heisenberg is credited as the father of

quantum mechanics, including the famous

uncertainty principle, which bears his

name. But he was also a man of some

dubious distinction. He was instrumental

in developing Germany's nuclear program

during World War II, as well as

inspiring a certain New Mexico chemistry

teacher three decades later.

>> Say my name.

>> You talking to me?

You talking to me?

You talking to me?

>> Rebel Without a Cause actor Salmano was

fatally wounded by a knife wielding

mugger on February 12th. He had been

returning home from rehearsals for an

upcoming play when he was attacked while

parking his car behind his apartment. Mo

succumbed to his wounds, passing away at

the age of 37. A pizza delivery driver

named Lionel Ray Williams was convicted

of the crime and sentenced to life in

prison, but was parrolled in 1990 after

serving just 12 years. The next day,

American figure skating champ Dorothy

Hamill took home the gold medal for

ladies singles at the 1976 Winter

Olympics in Ensrook, Austria. Hamill's

medalinning performance included her

signature move, a camel spin into a sit

spin dubbed the Haml camel and a final

scratch spin. A performance without any

flaws.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> Darthothy Hamill for Clar Short and

Sassy.

>> The longest it was about just to the top

of my shoulders

straight back and I used to pull it back

like this. Now, with short hair, I need

more body. So, I use Clear All Short and

Sassy, the conditioner for short hair.

Even after blow drying, short and sassy

makes it shiny and gives it body. And

let's face it, without body, short hair

is just short hair.

>> Clarall short and sassy with twice the

protein of the leading conditioner.

>> For the short and sassy look,

>> hurdling into March, the largest

observed meteorite in history fell to

Earth near Gilin City in China during a

massive meteor shower on the ETH. The

record- setting chunk of space rock

weighed nearly 4,000 pounds or roughly

the same as 1.8 million Dennis Eckersley

rookie cards. To date, it remains the

biggest observed meteor to strike the

planet. Heavy man.

The Who's hardying drummer Keith Moon

collapsed in the middle of a show at the

Boston Gardens on March 9th. The English

rock band had just started their set

when Moon simply toppled over behind his

drum kit. At the time, singer Roger

Daltry chocked the incident up to a bad

case of the flu, but it was later

revealed that Moon had suffered a near

fatal overdose of booze and prescription

pills. Moon bounced back in time to play

a makeup show a month later, but his

luck would run out before the end of the

decade. More on that in 2 years.

Two weeks later, Argentine President

Isabel Peron was overthrown in a

military coup on the 24th.

Peron, the third wife of former

President Juan Peron, took office after

her husband's death in 1974 during a

period of extreme socopolitical unrest.

Jorge Rafael Vidella, the general who

led the military huta against Peron,

controlled Argentina for the next

several years in a reign notorious for

human rights abuses and one of the worst

financial crises in the nation's

history.

Booting up April, Apple computer was

founded in Los Altos, California by

Steve Jobs, Steve Waznjak, and Ronald

Wayne on the 1st. Their first product,

the Apple 1, was designed and built by

Waznjak entirely by hand. Jobs, a

college dropout with no background in

computing, set up the company in his

parents' garage. He had an idea that the

personal computer, which at the time was

considered an extremely niche item for

hobbyists, could become the

indispensable product of the future.

Stay tuned to see how that works out for

him. Or just check out the logo on

whatever device you're using to watch

this video. Pretty good odds it might be

a piece of fruit.

The same day, experimental artist Max

Ernst packed away his earthly brushes at

age 84. A prolific Renaissance man,

Ernst was a poet as well as a sculptor

and painter and is considered one of the

fathers of dataism and surrealism.

[Music]

>> Charles Manson, the father, his family,

and their legacy of Helter Skelter. Now,

Lauraar Productions brings to full life

Helter Skelter, the number one

bestseller, the true story of the

Charles Manson murders. Renowned

industrialist, aviator, and film

producer Howard Hughes passed away on

April 5th at age 70. One of the most

powerful and influential figures of the

20th century, Hughes spent the final

decade of his life in extreme seclusion

as a result of his declining mental and

physical health. In fact, Hughes was so

secretive during those last years that

many didn't believe he had actually

died. And conspiracy theories about the

billionaire supposedly faking his death

circulated for years.

You follow the money. What do you mean?

>> Where? Oh, I can't tell you that.

>> Staying with books, literary horror

author Anne Rice published her debut

novel, Interview with a Vampire, on

April 12th. The book was the first

installment of Rice's popular Vampire

Chronicles series and would go on to

sell over 8 million copies. It was

eventually adapted into a 1994 film of

the same name, starring Tom Cruz and

some unknown actor named Brad Pitt.

>> In blood, but not human.

>> Barbara Walters made broadcast history

10 days later when she became the first

female anchor of a nightly network

newscast on the 22nd. Walter would

co-anchor ABC Evening News with Harry

Reezer for the next two years until a

visible onair tension between the two

led her to leave the show in 1978. But

don't worry, she landed on her feet.

Walters would go on to become one of the

most influential broadcast journalists

and interviewers of the 20th century.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

Radio Shack has the perfect gift for

pedal pushes. The famous Archer bicycle

radios that let you play Santa for as

little as $9.95. Or give the original

Road Patrol radio with built-in horn and

reflector. Or really make them happy

with this deluxe AMFM model. All three

disconnect quickly for safekeeping or

off-ike use. Lowcost Archer bike radios

only at Radio Shack, the Tandy company.

[Music]

Former Yard Birds frontman Keith Ralph

accidentally electrocuted himself with

his guitar on May 14th, passing away at

age 33. Ralph had been noodling around

with his instrument in the basement when

he stepped on a gas pipe. Because his

guitar wasn't grounding, the contact

with the metal pipe sent a fatal

electric current through his body. Ralph

left behind an enduring music legacy

with the Yard Birds, where he played

alongside future giants Jimmy Paige,

Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton.

Staying with the music theme, The Who

played the loudest concert in recorded

history at the time on the last day of

May. The show played at the Valley

Stadium in Charlton, London, thrashed

out an eard drum destroying 126 dB at a

distance of 100 ft from the stage. For

reference, the jet engine clocks in at

around 150 dB. Guess we know why Tommy

was deaf. The concert earned the Who the

nickname the loudest band in the world.

Controversial billionaire and timeline

recurring character J. Paul Getty kicked

the extremely wealthy bucket on the 6th

of June. The abduction of Getty's

grandson, J. Paul Getty III, and Getty's

subsequent refusal to pay his grandson's

ransom had dominated headlines 3 years

earlier. An avid art collector, Getty

left a sizable chunk of his massive

fortune, still considered to be one of

the largest personal fortunes in

history, to the J. Paul Getty Museum in

Los Angeles, California.

>> Damian, I love you.

>> Look at me, Damian.

>> It's all for you.

>> It's time for the family feud.

>> Sexy garment worn by women. Three

answers remain.

>> How about uh high boots? Uh

>> boots

>> tells me a little more about you than I

uh the old high boot. Char

>> baseball legend Hank Aaron hit the final

home run of his storied career on the

20th of July. Aaron swatted his 755th

dinger while playing for the Milwaukee

Brewers in a game against the California

Angels. He hung up his bat at the end of

the 1976 season, but would continue in

Major League Baseball as an executive

for the Atlanta Braves, where he had

played for most of his career.

Finishing out July, a notorious name

claimed as first victim on the 29th.

18-year-old Donna Lauria and 19-year-old

Jodie Valente were sitting in a car just

after 1:00 a.m. when a strange man

approached them and opened fire with a

44 caliber pistol. Lauria perished

instantly, but Valente survived and gave

a description of her attacker. The

murderer would come to be known as the

son of Sam, coined in a series of

letters he mailed to police and would

terrorize New York City for an entire

year. On the same day in Staying with

Sports, famed Formula 1 driver Nikki

Laua suffered a shocking crash at the

German Grand Prix. Laa's car went off

the track on a sharp curve and caught

fire with Laa trapped inside. Italian

driver Arturo Martzario managed to pull

him out, but not before Laosa suffered

severe burns that resulted in the loss

of one ear and both eyelids. Everyone

was so certain Lisa's ticket had been

punched that he was actually given last

rights at the hospital. But the driver

made a full recovery and returned to

racing just 6 weeks later.

>> We'll be right back.

What makes this television different

from any other in the world? This

button. It brings you a home video game

builtin. A Magnavox exclusive. One touch

and its Magnavox color TV with a color

picture of astonishing clarity. Touch

again. And it's Odyssey, America's

favorite home video game. Why settle for

just color TV when now you can have a

built-in home video game, too? Only from

Magnavox.

No way, man. Look, Millie will be here

in case Steve comes on back here. Now,

come on. Let's get going.

>> Uh-uh. You say what?

>> I'm not going out there alone at night.

>> Don't tell me you're afraid, little

brother.

>> All right, Raj, you tell him

>> he's afraid.

>> Thank you, Raj.

>> Esteemed television journalist Tom Broka

joined the Today Show on August 30th.

Broka would co-anchor the show with Jane

Paulie for the next 5 years. A

relatively new face in news media at the

time, Brokaw would go on to become one

of the most recognizable and trusted

media figures of the 20th century.

>> Hey Fzy, can you get that?

>> I'll get it, Kermit.

Hello, the Muppet Show backstage.

>> Who was it?

>> The water department.

Ma Zedong, the chairman of the Chinese

Communist Party and one of the most

prominent figures of the Cold War,

passed away at the wisened age of 82.

Initially a staunchy enemy of all things

Western, towards the end of his life,

Chairman Mao began to view the Soviet

Union as a greater threat to China than

the United States and had begun to try

and repair relations with America, which

had resulted in President Richard

Nixon's visit to the communist nation

four years earlier. The next day,

outspoken screenwriter Dalton Trumbo

dotted his last eye, passing away at age

70. Trumbo had been a major figure of

the Hollywood blacklist when Congress

appointed the House on American

Activities Committee to investigate the

threat of secret communist influence

that had allegedly infiltrated the

motion picture industry. Trumbo had

refused to testify before the committee

and was briefly imprisoned. He and

several others suspected of being

communist agents were blacklisted from

working in film for the next few

decades.

7 days later, NASA unveiled its first

space shuttle, the appropriately named

Enterprise. The 10 billion dollar

shuttle was revealed during a ceremony

at Rockwell International's

manufacturing plant in Palmdale,

California, which was attended by the

cast of Star Trek. Except for Shatner,

he will not be upstaged even by NASA.

>> How are you going to stop me?

[Music]

shorts on the mail. I ordered a

hamburger. What's this?

>> What's the difference? It's dead.

>> I'm not so sure.

>> To finish out September, musician Jerry

Lee Lewis shot his bass player, Butch

Owens, in the chest on the 29th. But not

to finish Owens, who survived what Lewis

insisted was an accidental shooting.

Lewis was no stranger to unfavorable

headlines. He previously earned stacks

of notoriety for marrying his

13-year-old cousin, Myra, and for the

mysterious demise of two of his other

wives, including many other run-ins with

the law. Do you think there's a reason

Lewis was nicknamed the killer?

Speaking of which, the Supreme Court

rescended its ban on the death penalty

on the 4th of October. The ban had

previously been set four years earlier

in the case of Ferman v. Georgia, in

which the court ruled that the death

penalty constituted cruel and unusual

punishment. However, the capital

sentences that had been reduced to life

imprisonment by the ban weren't

reinstated, most notably that of Charles

Manson. Now, there's some luck, Chuck.

2 days later, terrorists attacked Cubana

Flight 455 while the plane was in route

to Jamaica from Barbados. Two bombs

detonated mid-flight, plunging the

aircraft into the sea and claiming the

lives of all 73 people on board,

including all 24 members of Cuba's

National Fencing Team, who had just

swept the Central American and Caribbean

Championships. Officially, the attack

was credited to the group The

Coordination of United Revolutionary

Organizations, although rumors swirled

that the CIA may have been involved.

Speaking of frightening developments,

the Ebola virus was identified for the

first time under a microscope on the

unluckiest day of the spookiest month.

CDC veriologist Frederick A. Murphy took

a look at what he thought was a sample

of Marberg virus from Zire, now the

Democratic Republic of Congo, only to

see the now famous shepherd's crook

shape. According to the World Health

Organization, the virus has a mortality

rate of anywhere from 25 to 90% and

there have been over two dozen outbreaks

of Ebola since its discovery.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> Ford introduces the brand new Pinto Pony

MPG. This 2.3 L Penzo has a wider

stance, more road hugging weight and a

bigger engine than Datson B210, Toyota

Corolla, Honda, Opal, Fiat, VW Beetle,

Rabbit, Dasher, and Chevet. Yet still

has EPA estimates of 38 MPG highway, 25

city. Your actual mileage may vary. The

Pinto Pony MPG. The closer you look, the

better we look.

Jimmy Carter was elected the 39th

president of the United States on

November 2nd. Carter, the Democratic

governor of Georgia, narrowly defeated

incumbent Gerald Ford, who after

escaping two assassination attempts the

previous year, was probably relieved to

be done with the job. I don't know what

to do about the depression and the

inflation and the Russians and the crime

in the street. All I know is that first

you've got to get mad. You've got to say

I'm a human being.

In mid November, Spain's parliament

voted in favor of establishing a

democracy after nearly four decades of

dictatorship under Francisco Franco. The

vote, which passed 429 to 59, dismantled

Franco's fascist government almost one

year to the day after his death the

previous November. The country would

hold its first democratic election since

1936, the following June.

>> Okay, I'm going to tell you cuz you had

the talent to become a good fighter. And

instead of that, you became a leg

breaker to some cheap second rate lone

shark.

>> It's a living.

>> It's a waste of life.

>> Comic strip Kathy made its debut in

newspapers 4 days later on November the

22nd. The strip created by an

advertising vice president named Kathy

Guysw at the daily struggles of being a

modern single woman. Kathy would appear

in over 1,400 newspapers and be spun off

into three prime time specials before

ending its 34-year run in 2010. By

official count, two of the many Cathy

comic strips that were produced are

actually funny.

Popular Canadian-American rock group,

The Band, held their farewell concert on

Thanksgiving Day at San Francisco's

Winterland Ballroom. Dubbed the last

waltz, the concert featured guest

appearances by several other famous

musicians, including Bob Dylan, Joanie

Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters,

and Ringo Star. In addition to providing

turkey dinners for all 5,000 of the

concert's attendees, the show was filmed

by an upand cominging filmmaker named

Martin Scorsesei and released as a

documentary film 2 years later.

Moving into December, the cigar's most

famous brand ambassador, Fidel Castro,

became president of Cuba on the second.

Previously serving as prime minister of

Cuba since 1959, Castro would retain the

office of president of the Council of

State and President of the Council of

Ministers until 2008 when he stepped

aside and let his brother Raul Castro

take over. Oh, that's weird how that

worked out. Castro would remain the

first secretary of the Communist Party

of Cuba, a title he'd held since 1961

until his death in 2011.

>> Don't look down.

Come on out and see how it feels in the

lights.

[Music]

>> There aren't any lights.

>> You want lights? Hey, give a light.

>> Anti-aparttheid activist Winnie Mandela

was banished from Johannesburg on

December 28th. Mandela, the second wife

of fellow activist and future South

African president Nelson Mandela, was

forcibly relocated by the country's

apartheid government and could find to

Brandfort, a small remote town in the

Orange Free State, now the Free State

Province. Her banishment was just the

more recent form of abuse and harassment

she'd endured as a result of her

activism. She'd previously been

imprisoned, tortured, placed under house

arrest, and surveiled by the government.

Although her activism would continue

unabated, Mandela would remain confined

to Brandfort for the next 8 years.

And so 1976 boogied out the door. After

one last waltz with a few new

presidents, 1977 was up next on the

Jukebox, bringing with it a landmark

television event, one of the biggest

albums ever recorded, and an exciting

adventure in a galaxy far, far away. But

that's next year. Coming soon. 1977.

1977 made it clear from the word go that

a whole lot of things were about to

change. A newly elected president made

dramatic moves to heal an alien nation.

One of the biggest icons of the 20th

century was laid to rest and snow fell

in Miami. Like actual snow, not the kind

of snow crocket and tubs normally dealt

with. It was a year of dramatic debuts,

escapes, and departures. And we don't

mean people coming and going from the

roller rink. Okay, we don't just mean

that. It was also the year that

audiences around the world were first

transported to a galaxy far, far away,

and the relationship between grown

adults and action figures would never be

the same again. We're going to talk

about the news, culture, sports, and

entertainment, and all that was weird in

the 70s. This is Timeline.

Get ready to hitch a ride to Tshi

Station to pick up some power converters

because this episode is all about 1977.

Now fire up that Atari because this is

1977.

Starting the year would make us all mad

as hell as actor Peter Finch passed away

on the 14th. Finch had appeared on the

Tonight Show the night before he

succumbed to a heart attack in his

hotel. Later that year, Finch would

become the first actor to win aostumous

Oscar, nabbing a gold statue for his

role in Network, which was the movie he

had been on the Tonight Show to promote.

My dear tattoo, when each guest is

paying $50,000

for a 3-day stay on Fantasy Island, he

or she deserves miracles. Snow fell in

Miami for the first time in recorded

history on January 19th as an arctic

cold front swept through the Sunshine

State. Previously, the furthest south

snow had ever fallen in Florida was near

Fort Meyers back in 1899. So, yeah, it

was kind of a big deal. Speaking of

firsts, President Jimmy Carter pardoned

hundreds of thousands of American men

who evaded the draft during the Vietnam

War in his first month in office. Carter

had promised to pardon draft dodgers as

part of his presidential campaign,

arguing that it would help move the

country forward and heal the wounds of

the divisive and costly conflict.

>> Ah, you know that's your African name.

Musta give you a new name. Must say you

name to Hey, what's the matter with you?

Cutting me loose.

Kainte.

Moving into February, disasters struck

on the 4th when four cars of a loop

elevated train in Chicago jumped the

track in the middle of rush hour. The

accident claimed the lives of 11

commuters and injured 200 others. Over

40 years later, it remains the worst

elevated train disaster in the history

of the Chicago Transit Authority.

Disaster of a more artistic sort struck

that same day when Fleetwood Mack

released their groundbreaking album,

Rumors, recorded over an 11-month period

that saw the band's five members get

really into elicit substances, and

implode their personal relationships.

But it was all worth it for music

lovers. Rumors went on to top the

Billboard charts for 31 weeks, score an

album of the year Grammy, and sell more

than 40 million copies, making it one of

the bestselling albums ever produced.

Moving into the world of sports, boxer

Sugar Ray Leonard made his professional

debut on the 5th of February, stepping

into the ring with Lewis the Bull Vega

at the Civic Center in Baltimore.

However, Leonard had won a gold medal in

the Olympics as a light welterweight the

previous year. So, he wasn't exactly a

novice. He defeated Vega by unanimous

decision, beginning a 20-year career

that would earn him the reputation as

one of the greatest pound-for-pound

fighters of all time. 3 days later,

Adult magazine publisher Larry Flint was

sentenced to 7 years on obscenity and

organized crime charges. The organized

crime being the distribution of Flint's

Hustler magazine. The sentence was

overturned and Flint was released after

serving only 6 days in jail. The trial

was one of several brushes with the law

Flint had due to the graphic content of

his magazine and would eventually get a

movie in 1996's The People Versus Larry

Flint, starring Woody Harrelson as

Flint. The real life Flint has a cameo

as Judge William Moresy, the man who

handed him the 7-year prison sentence.

Just over 3 weeks later, pistol Pete

Maravic set an NBA record on February

25th when he scored 68 points against

the New York Knicks, the most ever for a

guard at the time. Maravic's record-

setting game was played before the

three-point line existed, which makes it

all the more impressive. To this day,

Maravic is one of only eight NBA players

to score 68 points or more during a

single game. The first killer whale born

in captivity came into this world on the

28th. Marineland of the Pacific star

attraction, Corki 2, unexpectedly gave

birth to a calf. But sadly, the baby

only lived for 11 days. And while

Marineland of the Pacific closed its

doors for good in 1987, Corki 2 is still

alive and kicking or flipping, I

suppose. At approximately 57 years of

age, she is the oldest living orca in

captivity. Moving into March, Bank of

America adopted the name Visa for its

credit card program on the 1st.

Previously, the card had been known as

the Bank America card and was a joint

program with several other financial

institutions. Why, Visa? The company's

founders believe the word was simple

enough to be recognized in any language.

That prediction turned out to be true.

Today, Visa is the second largest bank

card organization in the world. Hey,

it's everywhere you want to be. The next

day, Jay Leno made his first appearance

on the Tonight Show on the 2nd of March.

Leno's standup featured observational

oneliners about current events

punctuated by some playful crowd work.

All elements that would become staples

of his opening monologues 15 years later

when Leno took over hosting duties from

Carson on May 25th, 1992.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

Hello, I'm Chuck Connors and this is Ten

Can Alley. An exciting new electronic

target game that truly tests your

marksmanship from as far away as 25 ft.

>> Good evening.

>> Good morning.

>> Good lord. Is it morning?

>> Yes. Yes, it is. And if you don't mind a

stupid question, who are you?

>> Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Jack. Jack

Triple

>> Elvis Presley departed for his final

tour on the 23rd of March. Despite being

in poor health, the King of Rock and

Roll embarked on an aggressive national

tour just one month after a series of

dates throughout the South. The shows

were marred by Elvis's declining

condition. Disappointed fans and music

journalists alike remarked that the

singer was lethargic and difficult to

understand. He would have to be

hospitalized partway through the tour

and have to cancel several dates before

playing his final show on June 26th at

the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis,

Indiana. One day after Elvis left for

his final string of performances, Lily

Tomlin became the first woman to appear

in a solo Broadway show. Appearing

nightly, which Tomlin co-wrote with Jane

Wagner, debuted at the Builtmore Theater

on the 24th. She would go on to win a

Tony Award for her work on the show. Two

Boeing 747s collided on the runway at

Tenneref Airport in Spain on March 27th.

The crash occurred due to a

miscommunication that caused one

aircraft to initiate takeoff while the

other was still in its path. The

collision claimed the lives of 583

people, making it the worst accident in

aviation history. Returning to sports,

the Seattle Mariners kicked off the

month of April by playing their first

game ever on the 6th. The expansion team

was added to the American League as the

result of a lawsuit that originated when

the Seattle Pilots were purchased and

relocated to Milwaukee by Bud Celig. The

team became the Brewers, one of only six

teams in Major League Baseball that has

yet to win a World Series along with the

Mariners. It was a month of firsts for

Major League Baseball as the Toronto

Blue Jays played their first game the

very next day. Initially one of two

Canadian-based teams, today the Blue

Jays are the only organization in the

MLB located outside the United States

after the Montreal Expose became the

Washington Nationals in 2005. Sorry,

Canada. Author Alex Haley won the

Puliter Prize on April 18th for his work

on the iconic novel Roots, a

fictionalized version of Haley's own

family history. The best-selling novel

was adapted into a record-breaking

miniseries earlier the same year.

>> Hi. Hi.

Oh, hi. Hi.

>> Well,

bye.

The beloved musical Annie opened for the

first time at New York City's Elvin

Theater 3 Days Later on the 21st. Based

on the long-running comic strip Little

Orphan Annie, the musical ran for a

record- setting six years, scoring seven

Tony Awards. The musical has been

adapted several times. most notably into

the 1982 John Houston film featuring

Albert Finny and Carol Bernett. Moving

into the summer, volatile screen legend

Joan Crawford passed away on the 10th of

May in her apartment in New York City.

One of the biggest stars of Hollywood's

golden age, the controversial actress

had become a recluse in her later years

and had withdrawn almost entirely from

the public eye. Crawford's acrimonious

relationship with her children,

particularly her eldest daughter, led to

the infamous tell- all book Mommy

Dearest, later adapted into a film

starring FA Dunaway. A young DJ named

Howard Stern began broadcasting at WRNW

in New York on Friday the 13th. Stern

had initially served as a part-time

host, filling in during the holiday

season the previous year, but took over

a 4-hour midday shift 6 days a week. It

was the beginning of Stern's career as a

notorious shock jock, which is still

going strong nearly 50 years later.

>> The problem is that Kors beer, you take

that east of Texas and that's uh that's

bootlegging.

>> You know, I believe you're just a little

bit scared.

>> That's great psychology. Why don't you

just say something bad about my mother?

It's

>> a little short for a stormtrooper.

>> Huh? Oh, the uniform.

>> I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue

you.

You're

>> I'm here to rescue you. I've got your R2

unit. I'm here with Ben Kenobi.

>> Ben Kenobi? Where is he?

>> Come on.

>> Amateur mountain climber George Willig

made history on May 26th when he climbed

the South Tower of the World Trade

Center in New York City using

specialized equipment he developed

specifically for the climb. The

completely unsanctioned stunt took

nearly 4 hours and Willig was arrested

the instant he reached the top of the

tower. However, the stunt had captured

national attention and made Willig a

celebrity, earning him several

television appearances and the nickname

the human fly. He was ultimately let off

with a slap on the wrist, a fine of one

penny per floor he'd climbed for a grand

total of $110.

Punk band The Sex Pistols released their

second single, God Save the Queen, the

next day. The song, which contains

incendiary lyrics about Queen Elizabeth

II and monarchies in general and was

pointedly released during the Queen's

Silver Jubilee, was immediately banned

by the BBC and many other radio stations

in the United Kingdom. But it wasn't

just radio stations that were offended.

Singer Johnny Rotten and drummer Paul

Cook were both attacked on separate

occasions by random Brits enraged by the

song. That kind of seems pretty punk.

God Save the Queen, holds the dubious

distinction of being one of the most

banned records in the history of music.

Speaking of notoriety, James Earl Ray,

the man convicted of assassinating

Martin Luther King Jr., escaped from

Tennessee's Brushy Mountain State

Penitentiary on the 10th of June. Ray

fled the prison with six other inmates,

but he was quickly recaptured 3 days

later after being tracked down by blood

hounds. It was actually the second time

Ry had broken out of jail. He'd

previously escaped from the Missouri

State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in

a bread truck, where he'd been serving a

20-year sentence for armed robbery and

was still on the run when he took the

civil rights leader's life. Just over 2

weeks later, the Supreme Court ruled in

a 5-4 decision allowing lawyers to

advertise their services. That probably

seems weird because most of us can't

conceive of a world in which we don't

have the commercial jingle of our

hometown personal injury law firm

memorized. But prior to that ruling,

lawyers were bound by an antiquated bar

association tradition that argued they

should build up their clientele through

good work and word of mouth. Well, those

aren't antiquated ideals. Billboards,

bus ads, and local TV spots haven't been

the same since.

>> Justice.

>> Vladimir Nabacov kicked off the month of

July by well, kicking off. The

Russian-American novelist and author of

the controversial 1955 novel Lolita

passed away in the second at age 78 at

the Matro Palace Hotel in Switzerland.

He had been in the middle of working on

a new novel titled The Original of Laura

which was published in its incomplete

form in 2009.

>> 7X.

What do you think you're doing?

Keeping the British hand up, son.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> I drink Dr. Pepper and I'm proud. I'm

part of an original crowd.

And if you look around these days, there

seems to be a Dr. Pepper craze.

I'm a pepper. He's a pepper. She's a

pepper. We're a pepper. Wouldn't you

like to be a pepper, too? I'm a pepper.

He's a pepper. She's a pepper. If you

drink Dr. Pepper, you're a pepper, too.

Be a pepper. Drink Dr. Pepper. Be a

pepper.

The CIA unwillingly revealed its

involvement in mind control experiments

after 20,000 pages of documents were

discovered following a Freedom of

Information Act request on July 15th.

CIA director Richard Helms had

previously ordered the destruction of

all documents related to the project

known as MK Ultra. But this cache of

documents had been misfiled or hidden

leading to their discovery. The project

involved the study of the effects of

different drugs and procedures on humans

with the goal of identifying ways to

make subjects more pliable during

interrogation. MK Ultra has subsequently

been the basis of several conspiracy

theories and one or two TV shows as

well. Powering up the month of August,

President Carter established the US

Department of Energy on the 4th. The

move was intended to help America

recover from the unprecedented energy

crisis of the 1970s by promoting energy

development, conservation, and

regulation, and decreasing the nation's

dependence on fossil fuels. As many

Americans were still feeling the effects

of the 1973 oil embargo, the DOE was

tasked with researching new energy

technologies as well as supporting

nuclear weapons research. So, you know,

it wasn't all about putting solar panels

on the White House.

6 days later, David Burkowitz, aka the

son of Sam, was arrested while leaving

his home in Yonkers. The 24year-old

burkowitz had terrorized New York City

for an entire year by ambushing

unsuspecting victims, usually couples,

and opening fire on them with a 44

caliber handgun. Burkowitz was convicted

and sentenced to six life sentences.

5 days later, a notorious Nazi escaped

from custody hidden inside a suitcase.

Herbet Kappler, the head of the SS in

Rome during World War II, was carried

out of an Italian hospital by his wife.

Kappler had been serving a life sentence

in a military prison in Italy after

being convicted by a war tribunal, but

had been transferred to the hospital

after he was diagnosed with cancer.

Because of his rapidly declining

condition, the West German government

declined to extradite him back to Italy,

and he succumbed to his illness just 6

months after his escape. No word on

whether he was carried out of his home

in a fabulous luggage set.

One day later, the king of rock and roll

passed away at his home in Memphis,

Tennessee. Elvis Presley was found

unresponsive on the floor of his

Graceand mansion, having succumbed to a

heart attack at the age of 42. He was

buried on the grounds of Graceand, which

remains open to this day as a tourist

attraction.

A more welcome departure occurred 4 days

later when NASA launched the Voyager 2

probe on August 20th towards Jupiter,

Neptune, and Uranus. To date, Voyager 2

is the only craft to visit the two

furthest planets of our solar system,

and it's still functioning. It left the

solar system in 2018, and despite a few

hiccups, it remains in contact with

Earth as it continues on its

interstellar mission.

Comedy icon Groucho Marks delivered his

final punchline on the 19th at age 86.

One of the most recognizable stars of

his era thanks to his trademark eyebrows

and mustache and perpetual cigar,

Groucho's rapid fire delivery and

dizzying word play helped make the Markx

brothers a household name.

>> Hello,

I must be going.

>> Bridging the gap into September,

President Carter signed the Panama Canal

Treaties on the 7th. The treaties would

turn over control of the canal to Panama

after 1999, but also guarantee the

United States the right to defend

neutral access to the canal in

perpetuity. The decision was

controversial. Many prominent political

figures, including future President

Ronald Reagan, viewed it as

relinquishing a valuable asset to a

potential enemy, but the treaties were

upheld and jurisdiction of the canal was

handed over to Panama on December 31st,

1999.

3 days later, France sent the last

person to the guillotine when Hamida

Jean Dubie was executed on the 10th.

John Dubie had been convicted in the

abduction and slaying of Elizabeth

Buskeet earlier that year. His sentence

marked the final time the guillotine was

used for capital punishment in France.

Four years later, France would outlaw

the death penalty altogether.

Atari released their first game console,

the Atari 2600 on September 11th.

Initially called Atari VCS or video

computer system, the console quickly

became the dominant force in home gaming

and would remain at the top for the next

several years until a certain

mustachioed plumber came along.

>> You almost closed a book.

>> Stunned. It was beautiful. Come on,

admit it.

>> Welcome aboard the Love Boat. The what?

Oh, that's just a little nickname. We

have the doctor. In my presence, don't

ever call this ship a love boat.

>> The supersonic Concord jet made its

first landing in New York City on

October 20th, touching down at 11:12

a.m. at Kennedy International Airport.

The jet took off from Tuloo, France,

making the 3,800 mile trip across the

Atlantic Ocean in 3 hours and 45

minutes. Despite the appeal of a

high-speed transatlantic flight, the

Concord was met with stiff opposition

from New York City residents who

objected to the incredibly high decibel

levels the plane generated during

takeoff. It's tough to argue with him.

The plane generated actual sonic booms

like a Street Fighter 2 character.

Speaking of planes, three members of the

southern rock band Leonard Skard

perished when their chartered Convair

240 crashed in Mississippi that same

day. The band was flying from South

Carolina to Louisiana for a show when

their plane ran out of fuel and had to

make an emergency landing. The airline

collided with the treeine and broke

apart. Lead vocalist Ronnie Vanzant,

guitarist Steve Gaines, and Gaines's

sister, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines,

died instantly along with both pilots

and the band's tour manager.

Popular singer and Oscar-winning actor

Bing Crosby cruned his final song on

October 14th. One of the most popular

entertainers of the first half of the

20th century, Crosby collapsed on a golf

course in Spain after playing 18 holes,

succumbing to a heart attack at age 74.

President Carter raised the US minimum

wage to $3.35 an hour on the first day

of November, just in time for Black

Friday. The new figure was $15 higher

than the previous minimum wage of $2.30,

an increase of nearly 50%. That's no

small potatoes or peanuts, you know,

because we're talking about Jimmy

Carter.

>> Okay, listen. I like you. We could dance

together. That's it. We could just dance

together. I don't know. Nothing more.

Nothing personal. I don't want you

coming on to me.

>> Oh, no.

>> Because I don't think guys like you

anymore for one thing.

>> English folk musician Cat Stevens

converted to Islam on December 23rd,

leaving the music industry behind him

for the next two decades. Following a

near-death experience the previous year

and what he later described as a

lifelong search for spiritual meaning,

Steven subsequently changed his name to

Ysef Islam. With the exception of a

charity concert in Wembley Stadium in

1979, he did not perform again for 25

years.

Arguably one of the most famous

entertainers to have ever lived, Charlie

Chaplan passed away on Christmas Day at

age 88. The silent film star dominated

Hollywood in its early years, but he

left the United States after a series of

controversies and permanently relocated

to Switzerland in the 1950s. The events

of his life would later be dramatized in

the 1992 film Chaplain, directed by

Richard Adenboroough, the guy from

Jurassic Park, and starring Robert

Downey Jr.

Infamous serial killer Ted Bundy escaped

from prison on the second to last day of

1977, climbing out through the ceiling

of his Colorado jail cell. Bundy had

been awaiting trial and had already

escaped once before, leaping from a

courthouse library in Aspen back in

June. However, while he was quickly

apprehended that first time, he would

stay on the run for nearly 3 months,

during which time his victim count would

continue to rise. And so 1977 came to a

close with a curtain call of a [ __ ] and

the most notorious predator in history

on the loose. 1978 was pulling up late

to the party riding shotgun with a guy

you wouldn't like when he's angry. A

historic blizzard and one of the most

infamous accidents in the history of

televised stunts. But that's next year.

Coming soon. 1978.

1978 saw the decade begin to draw to a

close, and it wasn't shaping up to be a

particularly happy ending. The year was

fraught with shocking acts of violence,

including the grim origin of the phrase

drinking the Kool-Aid. But there were

also a few bright spots, such as the

debut of an exciting British rock

three-piece, the first appearance of the

most famous binge eating cat in recorded

history, and the release of some

soon-to-be classic comedies that would

begin to define the tone of pop culture

in the 1980s. We're going to talk about

the news, culture, sports, and

entertainment, and all that was weird in

the 70s. This is Timeline.

[Music]

Get ready to learn about the inspiration

behind several future Netflix

documentaries because this episode is

all about 1978.

Now get ready to believe a man can fly

because this is 1978.

Harvey Mil became the first openly gay

person to be elected to public office in

California's history when he took his

seat on San Francisco's Board of

Supervisors on January 8th. Milk was an

outspoken LGBTQ advocate and during his

time in office, he sponsored a

successful bill that prohibited

discrimination on the basis of sexual

orientation. But his time as a public

servant would be cut short. More on that

later in the year. The final Volkswagen

Beetle to be manufactured in Germany

rolled out of the factory just under 2

weeks later on the 19th. Officially

known as the Volkswagen Type 1, the

popular automobile would continue to be

manufactured in Brazil and Mexico until

2003, making it the longest running and

most manufactured car model in history.

Far out, man. 11 days later, legendary

talk show host Larry King went on the

air nationwide for the first time when

the Larry King Show premiered on the

30th. In a format that would become the

bedrock of his career, King's Daily Show

would begin with an interview with a

guest and end with King taking calls

from his listeners. The Larry King Show

would stay on the air until 1994 and

would be spun off into King's massively

popular TV talk show Larry King Live in

1985. Embattled film director Roman

Palansky fled the United States the next

day, hopping a plane to London to avoid

a prison sentence for unlawful sexual

intercourse with a minor. Palansky

pleaded guilty to the charge as part of

a deal to avoid jail time, but he had

heard that the judge intended to throw

out the deal and slap him with a 50-year

sentence. The director flew from London

to his home country of France the

following day, where he has mostly

remained ever since. Less than a week

later, the infamous blizzard of 78

struck the Northeast United States,

burying the Midwest and East Coast in

some serious snow. The storm lingered

for two days, delivering record-breaking

snowfalls of over 20 ines in several

areas. By the time the storm broke up on

February 7th, it had claimed

approximately 100 lives and caused over

half a billion dollars in damage. A week

later, the first micro on a chip was

patented by Texas Instruments on

Valentine's Day. Well, that's romantic.

Designed by Gary Boone and Michael

Cochran, the chip was used in Texas

Instruments iconic educational toy Speak

and Spell, which was unveiled four

months later at the Consumer Electronic

Show. ET would later use this

revolutionary technology in the 80s to

phone home. 10 to1 underdog Leon Spinx

defeated the reigning heavyweight

champion Muhammad Ali the next day.

Spinx outlasted the legendary champ,

winning by decision, becoming the first

person ever to strip Ali of his world

title in the ring. However, Spinx would

lose that title just over a month later

when he refused to defend his

heavyweight belt against number one

contender Ken Norton. March kicked off

with a bizarre heist. Two auto mechanics

stole the earthly remains of Charlie

Chaplain on the first. The two men

exumed the famed filmmaker's casket and

attempted to ransom it to Chaplain's

widow, Una, for $600,000. She refused,

which turned out to be the right move.

The culprits were caught just 5 weeks

later and Chaplain was reeri grave to

prevent future criminal entrepreneurs

from getting any ideas. Notorious

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flint

was wounded by a sniper on the 6th of

March. Flint and his lawyer were struck

by gunfire outside of a courthouse in

Gwinet County, Georgia, where Flint was

scheduled to appear to fight obscenity

charges. Although both men survived the

attack, Flint was left partially

paralyzed and had difficulty speaking

for the rest of his life.

>> We'll be right back.

>> Hey, this Christmas party is getting a

little too quiet. I think it's time we

liven it up with my favorite Christmas

gift, Mr. Microphone.

>> Hey, what's that?

>> Well, you set the dial on your FM radio

and testing testing

the radio.

The perfect Christmas gift at Walgreens,

Wworth, Wulco, Osco Venture, Wee Bowls,

Montgomery Ward.

>> David Banner is believed to be dead and

he must let the world think that he is

dead until he can find a way to control

the raging spirit that dwells within

him.

Tragedy struck on March 22nd when famed

highwire performer Carl Wenda fell while

performing a televised tightroppe walk

between two towers of the Condado Plaza

Hotel in Puerto Rico. Wenda was the

founding member and patriarch of the

Flying Wendas, a family of daredevil

performers known for their thrilling

stunts which were usually done without

any safety nets. That was the case when

Melinda fatally plummeted 121 ft from

the Kandado Hotel, succumbing to his

injuries at age 73. Because bringing

happiness is the only thing that's

important to me. So don't be surprised

if I show up on your unhappy doorstep

someday. Better yet, be surprised cuz

I'm not doing this again.

>> Taking off antenna, stealing panty hose.

Who Who would do something like that?

>> Probably the notorious car antenna

pantyhose gang.

You try getting along without your car

radio.

>> Well, try getting along without your

pantyhose.

>> This is work, honey. I told you I'm

Ewing Oil's goodwill ambassador.

>> Got a whole satchel full of goodwill

there.

>> Yeah, daddy calls them bees. Booze,

broads, and booty. It's what keeps the

independent oilman independent. Moving

into April, influential astronomer and

writer Carl Sean won a Pulitzer Prize on

the 17th of April for his non-fiction

book, The Dragons of Eden, about the

evolution of human intelligence. Sean

would later use some of the same ideas

from his prize-winning book in his

popular miniseries Cosmos. The Dragons

of Eden would eventually get a sequel

when 24 years later, the follow-up book

Up from Dragons was published,

co-written by Sean's son, Dorion. Back

in 78, May saw the breakout film of an

unknown martial arts star named Jackie

Chan. Chan's action comedy, Snake in the

Eagle Shadow, was released on the first,

introducing audiences around the world

to his signature slapstick fighting

style for the first time. We've been

injuring ourselves and spinning ladders

ever since. The first ever spam email

was sent 2 days later on the 3. The

message was sent by Gary Thurk, a

marketer working for Digital Equipment

Corporation, who bombed the inboxes of

nearly 400 Arpanet users trying to get

them to come to some sweet sales

presentation for the company's line of

computers. And with that click of the

send button, Nigerian princes were given

their most formidable weapon. Later that

month, the phrase glass ceiling was

coined for the first time on the 24th by

a New York telephone company manager

named Marilyn Loden. Loen was speaking

on a panel at the 1978 Women's

Exposition in New York when she used the

phrase to describe the invisible barrier

preventing women from advancing as far

as men in their chosen careers.

>> Well, different work now. Let's get to

it.

>> Tonight, Haraldo Rivera reports on how

Greyhound racing dogs get their taste

for the chase. A grizzly sport, but it

has its fans.

>> Sandy.

Teddy, what are you doing here? I

>> I thought you were going back to

Australia.

>> We had to change plans.

I can't.

Well, that's cool, baby. Moving into

June, the very first Garfield comic

strip was published on the 19th, and the

cubicle walls of your unfunny co-workers

have never been the same since. Created

by cartoonist Jim Davis, The Daily

Adventures of a Sarcastic Cat and His

Dim-witted Owner quickly became one of

the most popular comic strips in

history. at one point appearing in over

2 and a half thousand newspapers,

multiple television specials, cartoon

series, and liveaction movies, and

generating nearly a billion dollars in

annual merchandising revenue. That is a

lot of lasagna.

>> We'll be right back.

[Music]

>> Zon, if you want a date, get in shape.

>> Shape? I'm solid steel.

>> Uh-uh. Shake shape. Zon shape.

>> Get clean. Get close. Get comfort. Get

your face in shape.

>> Click in Shik Super 2. The only twin

blades tefloncoated for incredibly

comfortable close shaves.

>> Great shave, dog.

>> That's shake. Shake.

>> That's super, too.

>> The first rainbow pride flag was used at

the gay and lesbian freedom day parade

in San Francisco. Created by a clothing

designer named Gilbert Baker as a new

symbol for the city's LGBT community,

the flag immediately resonated with the

parade goers and was adopted as an icon

of gay pride.

>> I'm a zit. Get it. Now, George Romero

brings us the most intensely shocking

motion picture experience for all times,

Dawn of the Dead. Moving into the fall,

the Who's Party Boy drummer Keith Moon

finally self-destructed on the 7th. Long

suffering from alcoholism, Moon had

moved into a new flat in London to try

and get sober with the help of a

prescription seditive used to treat

alcohol withdrawal. Moon's addictive

personality was no match for the

powerful medication and he odeed passing

away at the age of 32. 3 days later

Mario Andredy won his first Formula 1

world drivers championship coming in

ahead of Austrian driver Nikki Laua who

you may remember from an earlier

timeline episode. Andredy would go on to

become one of the most famous drivers in

the history of professional racing

having claimed victories in Formula 1,

NASCAR and Indie Car. He also had three

guest appearances on Home Improvement.

That's when you know you've really hit

the big time. The next day, the last

known victim of smallox succumb to the

disease, one of the deadliest

afflictions in human history. Medical

photographer Janet Parker, contracted

the malignant virus from the smallox

laboratory where she worked. The head of

the lab, Professor Henry Bedson, was so

distraught over Parker's infection that

he took his own life just a few days

before she passed away. The World Health

Organization officially declared smallox

eradicated in 1980.

>> Oh, no. No. It's just that they told me

I'd be starting work today as a driver.

Oh, here's my hack light.

>> You're a cab driver?

>> Uh-huh.

>> What do you mean busting my chops here?

Make them believe you're a regular

person.

>> Turning to music, the Grateful Dead

played three nights of concert at the

Giza Pyramid Complex in Cairo, Egypt,

beginning the night of September 14th.

The proceeds of the show were donated to

the Egyptian Department of Antiquities

and to the Faith and Hope Society, the

favorite charity of Egypt's then first

lady Jihan Sadat. Originally intended to

be recorded and released as a live

album, those plans were shelved for

various technical and logistical reasons

until the album was finally released 30

years later, almost to the day on

September 30th, 2008.

>> Hello.

Hello.

Anybody in there?

Little hatchling brothers, you must

revolt against your oppressors. You have

nothing to lose but your shells.

>> In the great tradition of these laugh

masters of the past come two guys who

are hysterically funny.

[Applause]

>> They're Chich and Chong.

>> In late September, Pope John Paul I

unexpectedly passed away on the 28th

after serving just 33 days. The

September Pope, as he came to be known,

relinquished the papacy after succumbing

to a sudden heart attack at age 65. He

was succeeded by Pope John Paul II. Hey,

that's chronological. Who was elected

just over 2 weeks later on October 16th,

John Paul II would go on to become the

second longest serving pope in modern

history, wearing the big pointy hat for

27 years until his death in 2005.

Heading into October, the Sex Pistol's

infamous basist, Sid Vicious, was

charged with the secondderee murder of

his girlfriend, Nancy Spongen. Spongen

had been found in the couple's room in

New York's Hotel Chelsea by staff the

previous day with a stab wound to her

abdomen. Vicious admitted to the attack,

but his highly intoxicated state,

combined with his differing accounts of

the event, have kept the exact details a

mystery to this day. Staying with music,

English rock band The Police played

their first US show at New York City's

CBGBs 8 Days Later. The show was part of

an American tour during which the then

unknown band drove themselves from city

to city in an econo line van. Wonder how

many red lights they ran.

>> Sir, what's your name?

>> My name is Dorothy.

>> Dorothy and Toto.

What intelligent names?

was the boogeyman.

>> As a matter of fact, it was

[Music]

>> kicking off November with some tough

love, the iconic documentary film Scared

Straight premiered on television on the

second. Directed by Arnold Shapiro, the

gritty film follows a group of juvenile

offenders as they interact with real

life convicts at New Jerseys Raw State

Prison. The inmates scream at, berate,

and otherwise terrify the teenagers in

an effort to scare them straight by

exposing them to the grueling realities

of life behind bars. The film was

notably aired uncensored, marking the

first time certain four-letter

expletives were ever uttered on American

network television.

>> We'll be right back.

We took everything that was wrong with

children's television and got rid of it.

We kept everything that was good about

it and made it better. The result is

Nickelodeon, the young people's

satellite network.

>> Did you just hear what I heard? Her kids

are in school in other countries and she

likes it that way.

>> Yeah. And we're in a lot of trouble.

What you talking about, Willis?

>> Washington DC elected Marian Barry Jr.

as the city's first black mayor on

November the 7th. Barry had been a civil

rights activist in the 1960s and had

served as the president of the Le Moine

Owens College chapter of the NAACP while

he was a student there. The

controversial politician would go on to

serve four non-consecutive terms as DC's

mayor. One day later, legendary slice of

life artist Norman Rockwell passed away

at his home in Stockbridge,

Massachusetts at age 84. Rockwell was

best known for the covers he painted for

the Saturday Evening Post, which

presented an idyllic view of life in

smalltown America. At the time of his

death, he had produced over 4,000

original works for magazines, movie

posters, advertisements, and books,

making him one of the most prolific

artists of the modern era. Controversial

cultural anthropologist Margaret me

passed away one week later at age 76. Me

rose to prominence with her books Coming

of Age in Samoa and Sex and Temperament

in three primate societies in which she

argued that culture rather than biology

had a profound effect on human

development and advocated for the

relaxing of rigid sexual norms and

gender roles in modern society. She also

served as an assistant curator at New

York's American Museum of Natural

History for over 50 years, which is

enough time to name all of the dinosaur

skeletons.

>> That's it. I'm turning back.

>> I know your family's waiting.

>> I know it's an important day.

3 days later, cult leader Jim Jones

directed and manipulated hundreds of his

followers to take their own lives at his

Jonestown Commune in Guyana on November

18th. Jones became paranoid after US

Congressman Leo Ryan visited the commune

to investigate allegations of abuse and

illegal activity. Jones ordered the

assassination of Ryan and his group who

were ambushed on an airirstrip as they

attempted to leave with some Jonestown

defectors. Altogether, 99 lives were

lost at Jonestown, including Ryan. San

Francisco was struck by tragedy 8 days

later when newly elected supervisor

Harvey Mil was assassinated alongside

Mayor George Moscone by disgruntled

former supervisor Dan White. White had

resigned from his position weeks earlier

in protest of the low salary and had

formed a rivalry with Milk over the

course of the year. White claimed he had

spiraled into a depression and wasn't

fully in control of his actions and was

ultimately convicted, serving just 5

years in prison before taking his own

life in 1985.

Milk's life would later be the subject

of an award-winning film 2008's Milk,

starring Shaun Penn in the title role.

One week later, Diane Feinstein was

named Mayor of San Francisco following

the slaying of Mayor George Moscone.

Feinstein had been serving as the

president of the city's board of

supervisors and had delivered the news

of Milk's demise to her shocked

constituents. You

>> remember the trees? Remember all the

different ways in the trees? Remember

that? You remember? Huh?

>> The mountains. You remember all that?

>> One shot.

>> One shot. One shot.

[Music]

>> The hell's that?

>> Easy, miss. I've got you.

>> You You've got me. Who's got you?

>> Nobody's favorite clown, John Wayne

Gayy, was arrested on December 21st

after confessing to the slaying of more

than 30 teenage boys and young men. Gayy

had been collecting victims for years.

Police discovered several sets of

remains buried in the crawl space

beneath his house. Gayy was ultimately

convicted of 33 counts of homicide, at

the time, the most ever attributed to a

single person. And so the sun set on

1978 with the cinematic debut of one of

America's greatest heroes and the arrest

of one of its worst villains. 1979 was

on deck with a hip new portable music

craze, the debut of two future NBA

legends and the arrival of the most

significant political figure in modern

American history. Yeah, old Rapen Ronnie

is on the way. But that's next year.

Coming soon, 1979.

The 1970s were drawing to a close, and

like many decades, it had been a mixed

bag. Although this time, the bag

probably had C3PO on it. But 1979 wasn't

about to go gently into that good night.

The year saw the release of several

classic movies, the last ride of a

Hollywood legend, and the debut of three

bonafide icons of modern professional

sports. It also saw heightened political

tensions, capping off the globally

tumultuous 70s with a significant Soviet

coup that would start toppling the

dominoes, ultimately leading to a

shocking September morning in New York

City. And above it all loom the spectre

of the impending 1980s, which began to

take the shape of a folksy presidential

candidate who liked to wear cowboy hats.

We're going to talk about the news,

culture, sports, and entertainment, and

all that was weird in the 70s. This is

timeline.

[Music]

Time to grab your Moon Raker laser and

jump the General Ely over 3M Island

because this episode is all about 1979.

Now get ready to find your rainbow

connection because this is 1979.

Kicking off the year, Hilton Hotel's

founder, Conrad Connie, if you watched

Mad Men. Hilton checked out of this

earthly plane on January 3rd. The man

responsible for the first international

hotel chain and for Paris Hilton's music

career passed away, checking out late at

age 91. Oof, he stuck around for a while

like a Hilton time share payment. 13

days later, the landmark nature series

Life on Earth premiered on BBC 1 January

16th. The ambitious 13 episode

documentary took 3 years to complete,

using hundreds of hours of the highest

quality footage available to chronicle

the history of life on the planet. Life

on Earth was such a success that it

turned presenter David Atenboroough into

a household name and spawned decades of

follow-up series under the life banner.

The first shot in the war of man versus

machines was fired nine days later when

the first documented case of a robot

taking out a human in the United States

occurred. 25-year-old factory worker

Robert Williams was struck in the head

by a robotic arm in a Ford motor plant

in Michigan. The accident was attributed

to a lack of adequate safety measures

and Williams's family was awarded $10

million in damages. Meanwhile, the robot

went right back to work as if nothing

happened. Must have been a robo

senator's kid.

[Music]

[Applause]

>> That's Bo and Luke Duke. And from the

way they're dooded up, they got

something cooking. And you know it ain't

girls cuz it's still daylight.

>> Famed American businessman and former

vice president Nelson Rockefeller passed

away on the 26th at age 70. Rumors began

swirling after it was revealed that

Rockefeller had collapsed in the

presence of a 25-year-old aid named

Megan Marshack, who had previously

worked for him in Washington, DC, and

for whom he had recently purchased a

Manhattan condo. Rockefeller. Oh, he

barely knew her. Allegedly. Moving into

February, Sex Pistols basist Sid Vicious

departed for the Great Dive Bar in the

Sky on the second. Vicious had recently

been arrested for the murder of his

girlfriend Nancy Spongen and had just

been released from prison the day

before. The punk rocker bought a bunch

of H to celebrate and ODed that night.

The story of his brief life would

eventually be adapted into a movie. The

1986 film Sid and Nancy starring Gary

Oldman and Khloe Webb as the doomed

couple. Back to 79 and turning into

music, The Village People had their

biggest hit when their song YMCA peaked

at number two on the Billboard music

charts on February 3rd. The now iconic

song was the only single off their album

Cruising released in September of the

previous year. It would be a good year

for the Village People. They would have

another song climb the charts a few

months later when In the Navy reached

number three on May 19th. The sun set a

nefarious Nazi scientist Yseph Mangala

on the 7th. Mangala's unscrupulous human

experiments conducted during World War

II earned him the nickname the angel of

death. When a guy has a more intense

nickname than Hitler, you know he's bad

news. Mangala fled Germany in 1949 and

spent the rest of his life hiding in

South America where he suffered a stroke

while swimming and drowned in Brazil at

age 67. One day later, the nuclear power

facility at 3-M Island in Pennsylvania

experienced a partial meltdown.

Mechanical failures, design flaws, and

operator errors all contributed to the

accident, which remains the most

significant nuclear incident in American

history. Although no one was injured,

and the meltdown was contained before

any serious long-asting harm took

effect, the incident was the beginning

of the end of nuclear power plant

construction in the States. Cleanup of

the reactor would ultimately last 14

years and cost $1 billion. Pakistani

President Zulfikar Alib was executed at

the beginning of the month being hung in

secrecy for the crime of conspiring to

assassinate a political rival on the

4th. BH had been deposed in a coup by

General Muhammad Ziah Hak 18 months

earlier. Although he was a controversial

figure who had served as both president

and prime minister of Pakistan during a

period of extreme unrest, the charges

against him are generally agreed to have

been bogus. Zeia continued to serve as

Pakistan's de facto president until he

perished in a plane crash in 1988.

President Jimmy Carter had an infamous

run-in with a rabbit on April 20th. The

rabbit in question was being pursued by

dogs and swam out into the lake where

Carter was fishing and tried to jump

into his boat. The president shued the

wild beast away with his ore, creating a

memorable image that became a popular

news story that hurt his re-election

campaign. The state of Georgia selected

Ray Charles version of the classic

Georgia on my mind to be the official

state song on the 24th. Originally

co-written and recorded by Hogi

Carmichael in 1930, Charles, the native

son of Georgia, recorded a version of

the song for his 1960 album, The Genius

Hits the Road. It became a number one

Billboard hit as well as the signature

tune of Charles's career. Margaret

Thatcher became the UK's first female

prime minister when she was elected on

the 4th of May. The leader of Great

Britain's Conservative Party, Thatcher

was a controversial figure, earning the

nickname the Iron Lady due to her

staunch politics. She wound up serving

three terms, leaving office in 1990,

making her the longest serving British

Prime Minister of the 20th century.

Elton John became the first western pop

star to tour the Soviet Union when he

kicked off seven days worth of shows on

the 20th of May. The Rocket Man played

eight shows in Lennengrad in Moscow. His

final show of the tour was broadcast

live via satellite across Europe by the

BBC and footage from the tour was used

in a television documentary titled To

Russia with Elton. Sticking with music,

the Charlie Daniels band released their

signature hit, The Devil Went Down to

Georgia on the 21st. a blazing three and

a half minute southern rock tune about a

skilled fiddle player making a deal with

a devil. The song was certified platinum

and has remained a pop culture mainstay

ever since and makes us all kind of want

to fiddle. We go now to San Francisco

where on the 21st of May the White

Knight riots erupted. The riots were the

result of the conviction of former city

supervisor Dan White, who you may

remember was responsible for the 1978

assassination of San Francisco Mayor

George Moscone, and city supervisor and

first open gay politician Harvey Mil.

Protesters were outraged by White's

conviction of the lesser charge of

voluntary manslaughter. The riots

started as a peaceful march that

escalated while outside of city hall and

later at a bar called the Elephant Walk.

We'll be right back.

>> Wow. Macaroni and cheese. Mine's

spaghetti.

>> Beef noodles. My wife's a magician.

>> The trick is new mug lunch from Betty

Crocker. Three tasty hot dishes you make

in a mug. One helping at a time. Just

add boiling water. Wait 4 minutes. Stir

and eat.

>> Muga Lunch. New from Betty Crocker.

>> Move out. Move out. Get out.

[Music]

Funk Band Chic released their chart

topping single Good Times on the fourth.

The song hit number one on the Billboard

Hot 100 and has gone on to become one of

the most influential pieces of modern

music, having been sampled more than

almost any other song in music history,

most notably by the Sugar Hill Gang in

their 1979 hit Rappers Delight. John

Wayne saddled up and hit the old dusty

trail for the last time on June 11th.

One of the most iconic movie stars in

history, Wayne built a legendary career

playing hard-edged western heroes like

the grizzled Marshall Rooster Cogburn in

1969's True Grit. The Duke was 72. Rock

legend Chuck Barry pleaded guilty to tax

evasion on June 12th. The father of rock

and roll admitted to having dodged

payment of over $100,000 in income tax

back in 1973 and was sentenced to four

months in prison. Barry had just

performed at the White House at

President Carter's request 11 days

earlier. Go Johnny, go and pay your

taxes. In a landmark decision, the Sue

Nation received $100 million in

compensation for Black Hill, South

Dakota on June the 13th. The land was

taken from the Sue by the American

government back in 1877 and is currently

the site of Mount Rushmore National

Memorial. Today, the settlement has

grown to over 1 billion dollars, but the

Sue Nation has never claimed it.

>> I'm Stler.

>> I'm Waldorf. We're here to heckle a

Muppet movie.

>> Gentlemen, that's straight ahead.

Private screening room D.

>> Private screening?

>> Yeah, they're afraid to show it in

public.

You appear with the tedious

inevitability

of an unloved season.

>> I didn't think there were any seasons in

space.

>> As far as you're concerned, only winter.

>> The greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali,

announced his third retirement on June

27th. Ali insisted this time he was done

with professional fighting for good,

despite his earlier retirements that had

turned out to be less than permanent.

The 37-year-old heavyweight champ

abdicated his world title in a letter to

the World Boxing Association, but this

time would turn out to be less than

permanent as well. He would come out of

retirement one more time to challenge

Larry Holmes for the title on October

2nd, 1980. Dubbed the last harrah, a

visibly passed his prime Ali lost in a

10th round TKO after his corner threw in

the towel.

The beginning of July saw the debut of

Sony's Walkman. The brainchild of a Sony

executive who just wanted a more

portable way to listen to music while on

the go, the Walkman started off slowly,

but by the end of the summer was turning

into a genuine phenomenon. The Walkman

would go on to become one of the most

successful products in the company's

history and one of the most influential

consumer electronics ever produced. The

infamous disco demolition night went

down on the 12th of July. Baseball fans

were lured to the Chicago White Sox's

Kamiski Park with the promise of 98 cent

ticket prices if they brought along a

disco record to be destroyed on the

field in between the two games. The

event was spearheaded by local shock

jock and avid disco hater Steve Dah.

When Dah took the field to dramatically

detonate the disco records, all hell

broke loose, resulting in a riot that

saw thousands of fans storm the field

and trash the place. Needless to say,

the promotion was not repeated.

>> Jonathan,

>> Max, what are you doing in that outfit?

>> Sorry, I didn't want to scare you.

>> Vocal tennis stars John McEnroe and

Ilian Estasi faced off in an infamous US

Open match on August 30th. The match

erupted into a memorable display of

decidedly unsportsmanlike conduct, which

wasn't much of a surprise considering

the two competitors were nicknamed Super

Brat and Nasty, respectively. At one

point, Nastasi, who was losing badly,

refused to resume the match, stirring

the crowd up into a near riot. The chaos

continued to escalate until Nastasi

finally had the chair referee replaced,

and the score reset to what it had been

before he'd received a penalty for

delaying the match. Nastasi still lost.

[Music]

>> British band The Police released their

first number one single, Message in a

Bottle, on the 29th. The track became

one of the band's signature hits,

climbing to the top of the Billboard

charts in the UK. Message in a bottle

remains one of the police's best known

songs and according to interviews

conducted over the years since its

release, one of the man's personal

favorites. The newly elected Pope John

Paul II became the first pope to visit

Ireland on the 29th, like ever. It was

kind of a big deal. An estimated 2.7

million people greeted the Pope over the

course of his 3-day visit, making it a

major public event and one of the most

significant in the history of modern

Catholicism. Among other things, the

Pope addressed the rising political

violence in Northern Ireland as the

troubles raged on, urging his followers

to reject brutality and remember the

teachings of the church.

Introducing Bo Derek.

>> Did you ever do a tour of Valero

>> in Blake Edwards 10?

On October 11th, the Nobel Prize in

Physiology or Medicine was awarded to

Alan Cormarmac and Godfrey Houndsfield

for their work in developing computerass

assisted temography, better known as the

CAT scan. Yeah, they definitely deserve

to win that one. The X-ray imaging

technique is easily one of the most

significant technological achievements

in the history of modern medicine. Wayne

Gretzky scored his first goal in the

National Hockey League on October 14th.

The Great One had previously played for

Canada's World Hockey Association.

During his inaugural NHL season, he went

on to tie for the most goals scored by a

single player and would win the Heart

Memorial Trophy as the league's most

valuable player, an award he would claim

seven more times during his career. Not

to be outdone by those cat scan guys,

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel

Peace Prize on October 17th. The famous

Catholic nun and founder of the

missionaries of charity dedicated her

life to charity and hospice care

specifically for patients afflicted with

tuberculosis, leprosy, and HIV and AIDS.

Although some consider her a

controversial figure, Mother Teresa

would eventually be canonized by the

Catholic Church, making her official

title St. Teresa of Kolkata. President

Carter signed legislation creating the

Department of Education on the 17th of

October. The creation of the department

had been one of Carter's campaign

promises, establishing an entity to

determine federal funding policies for

American public schools, as well as

research educational issues and collect

information and statistics about

American schooling. South Korean

President Pak Chongi was taken out on

the 26th. The former general had served

as the president of the Republic of

Korea for nearly 20 years after taking

office in 1963 following a military

coup. not to those going around. But his

regime was oppressive and authoritarian,

and his ticket was finally punched by

his friend Kim Ju, the head of the

Korean Central Intelligence Agency, who

shot Pac and several of Pac's bodyguards

during a banquet dinner. Birmingham,

Alabama, elected its first black mayor

on October 30th. Richard Arrington Jr.,

a former city council member and

university professor with a doctorate in

zoology, took office after a runoff

election. He wound up being elected to a

total of five terms, serving as the

city's mayor for the next 20 years. The

owners of the iconic disco nightclub

Studio 54 pleaded guilty to income tax

evasion on November the second. Studio

54's reputation for debauchery, rampant

drug use, and celebrity clientele made

it a symbol for 1970s excess. But the

party was over when its owners, Steven

Rubel and Ian Shrager, were convicted.

Mirrors and rolledup dollar bills would

never be the same.

>> We'll be right back.

>> It's okay. You can have it.

>> No. No.

>> Really? You can have it.

>> Okay.

>> Makes me feel good.

Makes me feel nice around. That's a

great thing. And I like to see the whole

world smiling with me

as

a clown.

>> Thanks, Joe. Smile.

>> We go to Thran where Iranian student

demonstrators seize control of the US

embassy on the 4th of November.

Revolutionary group members were

followers of Ayatollah Ruola Kmeni, a

devout anti-American cleric. The group

held more than 60 Americans hostage for

the next 444 days and didn't release

them until just after Ronald Reagan's

1981 inaugural address in what was

interpreted as a big old FU to Jimmy

Carter, who had allowed the deposed

former Sha of Iran to come to America

for cancer treatment. Ayatollah Kmeni,

who famously dubbed the US the great

Satan, would spend much of the next

decade as the supreme leader of Iran.

>> Who could it be? Who could it be? I just

can't imagine who. Could it be

Satan?

>> North American Air Defense Command, or

NORAD if you're nasty, issued a false

alarm on the 9th of November that nearly

triggered nuclear war. NORAD's missile

warning system designed to alert the

American government if any ICBMs were

launched by enemy nations falsely

reported to the Pentagon, Strategic Air

Command, and others that 1400 Soviet

missiles were on their way to the United

States. The mixup occurred when a

technician ran a test program but forgot

to update the system to reflect this.

That is a pretty big error. 3 days

later, President Carter announced the

halt to the importation of that oh so

gooey and delicious petroleum from Iran,

citing a potential threat to national

security. The move was a response to the

ongoing hostage crisis at the American

embassy in Thran, and it effectively

ended the cooperative relationship

between the two nations. Smelling blood

in the water, Ronald Reagan announced

his candidacy for president the next

day. Reagan, a former actor who had

previously served two terms as the

governor of California, had

unsuccessfully run for president back in

1976, ultimately losing the Republican

nomination to the then sitting President

Gerald Ford. Reagan's chances were

looking much stronger now, particularly

as the ongoing Iranian hostage crisis

continued to erode President Carter's

credibility as an effective leader.

American Airlines Flight 444 was forced

to make an emergency landing on November

15th when a package sent by the Uni

Bomber exploded in the plane's cargo

hold mid-flight. Although no one was

fatally injured, 12 passengers had to be

treated for smoke inhalation. It was the

third attack made by the infamous

terrorist who would eventually be

identified as Theodore Kazinski, a

former mathematics professor turned

anarchist. Kazinski had detonated two

previous packages at Northwestern

University, earning him the FBI case

identifier, Unibomb University and

Airline Bomber. Oh, so that's where it

comes from.

[Music]

The first artificial blood transfusion

in the United States was administered at

the University of Minnesota hospital on

the 20th. The patient, a 67-year-old

Jehovah's Witness, had refused a

traditional transfusion because it was

against his religion. The man received a

total of six pints of a blood substitute

called fluosol, which has the ability to

carry and dissolve oxygen just like

normal blood. On November 24th, a

damning report by a government watchdog

agency revealed that US troops serving

in the Vietnam War were indeed exposed

to Agent Orange, contrary to what the

Defense Department had previously

claimed. The General Accounting Office,

now known as the Government

Accountability Office, found that

thousands of Marines had been exposed to

the deadly herbicide, either by entering

affected combat zones or being within

one mile of combat zones that were

doused with a chemical. Agent orange had

been deployed as a defoliate to clear

forests and crops. But the toxic

chemicals were found to cause dramatic

health problems in humans, including

multiple types of cancer and serious

birth defects. Arguably the most iconic

NFL broadcasting duo ever took the mic

for the first time on November 25th when

John Madden and Pat Summerall called the

Minnesota Vikings Tampa Bay Buccaneers

game on CBS. Summerall played straight

man to the larger than-l life Madden.

The partnership lasted an astonishing 22

years, during which time NFL fans were

introduced to boom, the turducken, a

true artist of the teleustrator, and of

course, Madden football, EA Sports. It's

in the game. Heading into the final

month of the final year of the 1970s and

much like the '7s, what began as fun

ended with tragedy as 11 people were

fatally trampled at a concert by The Who

outside the Riverfront Coliseum in

Cincinnati, Ohio. Eager fans crushed

through the entrance shortly after the

gates opened. The frenzy pace was caused

by the seating, which was mostly first

come, first serve. The band was not

informed of the tragedy until after the

performance because it was feared that

the unruly crowd would riot if the

concert was cancelled. We are aboard a

huge starship called the Enterprise.

This is the return of Captain Kirk.

>> An alien object of unbelievable

destructive power is less than 3 days

away from this planet.

>> He hates these cans.

Stay away from the cans.

>> Okay, here's your question. Which trivia

board game was invented by two Canadian

journalists on December 15th? Give up.

It was Chris Haney and Scott Abbott who

invented Trivial Pursuit that night

while trying to devise a Scrabble

variant and sharing a few beers. Today,

it is among the most popular board

games, having sold over 100 million

copies and releasing several themed

spin-offs, including a Harry Potter

edition. You're a quizzer, Harry.

>> That I'm capable of taking care of him.

>> What do you mean? I want my son.

>> You can't have him.

>> Two weeks later, Afghanistan's president

Hafazula Amin was taken out in a Soviet

coup that went down on December 27th.

Amin had overthrown the previous

president near Muhammad Taraki just 4

months earlier. Am's strict nationalist

views along with his pursuit of

favorable relationships with both the

United States and Pakistan did not sit

well with the Soviet Union. So Russian

forces invaded just before the end of

the decade to rub a mean out and install

a pro-Russia president in his place,

Barbara Carmel. The coup kicked off the

Soviet Afghan war in which several

insurgent groups collectively known as

the Mujahedin fought against Soviet

occupation. One significant figure in

the Mujahedin was Osama bin Laden. And

so the 1970s, the decade of boogying

down, jumping buses, rationing gas,

exiting the Vietnam War, resigning the

presidency, and so very much more, came

to a close. Undeniably one of the most

influential periods of modern history.

The 1970s shaped America and the rest of

the world in ways that we're still

feeling the effects of to this day. The

1980s were now blazing into view with

Regonomics, Pastel Detectives, and the

end of the Cold War, ready to ride into

the danger zone in a timetraveling

Delorean. But that's next time. So, what

do you think? What was the most

significant event of the 1970s? Let us

know in the comments below. And while

you're at it, check out some of these

other groovy timeline videos.

[Music]